PRICE OF BREAD

Grey River Argus, 31 July 1940, Page 8

PRICE OF BREAD

POSITION IN AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, July 29 A special statement was made at Wellington by a member of th;. Puce Investigation Tribunal that Auckland bakers had added a half-penny to the price of each one-pound delivered loaf. This has been done' without authority, and when it wa s reported, the tribunal immediately instructed the bakers that the charge had not been authorised and that they must revert to the previous charge. The heavy demand for small loaves of bread that are classed with “fancy” bread and are not subject to weight regulation has resulted m suggestions that steps should be taken to ensure a standardised weight. Speaking of the reversion by the Auckland Master Bakers’ Association to former charges after a briei addition of one half-penny on each delivered lib. loaf, correspondents complain that this loaf is often short in weight. “The half-loaf, or 11b. loaf, priced at 3d.,” writes a correspondent, “is often 31 to 4 oz. short of the lib. m weight. To add an extra id. on to the cost of the already short-weight loaf would be a gross injustice to tne purchaser, who is already losing something like 3d. in every 1/-. Unfortunately, only two loaves come within regulation restrictions, the 2ib. tin and the 21b. sandwich. “We are given to understand that wages are a factor in the handling of small and fancy loaves, but unfortunately everyone wishes to pasa on his increased costs to the housewife, until she feels besc-t on every side with ever-increasing expense.., and finds the rise in wages merely u rise in costs.”

Another correspondent states that she has weighed her bread regularly for some time past and in no case has the large 21b. loaf weighed more than 111 b., and the small loaf Sib., and sometimes barely sib. This latter weight would bring the true cost of bread to something like 1/for a full 21b.