BREAD DELIVERIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 August 1946, Page 6

BREAD DELIVERIES

SMALL PRICE INCREASE AUTHORISED,. ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BAKERS (P.A..) WELLINGTON, August 7. With the object of encouraging the immediate resumption of bread deliveries, the prices for bread deliveries have been increased by a half-penny for 21b loaves and a penny for 4lb loaves, and a maximum delivery charge of a half-penny is now permitted for 11b loaves. The Price Tribunal made this announcement to-day.

The tribunal, in a statement, said the figure of 4.35 d as a delivery charge for the 21b loaf, for which the Master Bakers' Association applied, was completely divorced from reality, amounting nearly to the wholesale cost of the bread itself. The tribunal said its decision had been made on the assumption that some form of voluntary zoning would be required in populated areas wheie zoning was practicable and thus avoid the extravagant overlapping of deliveries which obtained before the war.

The tribunal said that if any baker’s accounts reveal that a reasonable margin of profit is not possible because of the resumption of retail deliveries on the charges now authorised, consideration will be given to an application by any particular baker to review his financial position in order to adjust any hardship which may be disclosed; The tribunal said the increased delivery charges now authorised applied to deliveries by all retailers of' bread and relate solely to delivery. They do not include any increase in respect to the 1939 authorised cash prices or booking fee then charged by individual retailers or bakers.