A BREAD PROBLEM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 225, 23 September 1907, Page 3

A BREAD PROBLEM.

How to secure the public against fraud in connection with the sale of bread is a problem which, the Legislative Council is endeavouring to solve. A considerable amount of light-weight bread is sold, and the law as it at present stands can be easily evaded by multiplying the varieties of fancy bread, which need not be sold by weight. The production of "fancy" loaves has enormously " increased. If the bread-buyer finds a four-pound loaf five ounces short, the explanation generally is that it is somebody's patent digestive preparation sold at so much a loaf instead of by the pound. However, the sale of Food and Drugs Act, which aims at preventing deception, is being utilised by the Government to guarantee that proper value will be given when a purchaser pays the fixed price for a loaf of bread. A carefully drafted clause submitted to the Legislative Council by the Hon. Dr Findlay will, if adopted; restrict the "fancy bread" method of sale to loaves under two pounds weight, and will throw upon the vendor the onus of informing the customer if the loaf not in the ' fancy" category is not of a standard weight. The Premier has announced his scheme for regulating the price of bread, so that if all the proposed legislation is carried out, the efforts •of unscrupulous bakers to increase their profits by lightening the loaf will make their path a perilous one.—New Zealand Times.