HIGH PRICE OF BREAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20851, 18 April 1931, Page 12

HIGH PRICE OF BREAD.

INTERESTS OF CONSUMERS.

WHEAT AND FLOOR DUTIES.

MR. FORBES INVESTIGATING.

[ny TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] v WEBLIN GTON, . When the Prime Minister makes his promised statement in Parliament on the wheat and flour duties ho will probably take some action towurd stabilising the price of bread throughout -New Zealand. This ho expects will ensure a definite drop in the price of tho people's staple food and will prevent exploitation of tho consumer by any section of industry. The alteration in the sliding scale of duties on wheat and flour, tho nature of which has already been forecast, according to calculations iriado by interested parties, will ultimately be reflected in a drop of Id to lid in tho price of the 41b loaf.

It is learned that the Prime Minister, in his anxiety to ensure that the reduction in the «>st of necessities shall be sufficient to meet the falling away in national and individual incomes will not. be satisfied with a fall of on tho loaf. To carry out this intention some method of fixing the maximum price will have to be adopted. Differences In Prices Analysed. It is held that there is no sound reason why bread should bo sold in Auckland at Is Id and in Christchurch and Dunedin at 9id to lOd The variation in price of flour all over New Zealand is about 30s a ton One penny difference on the 41b loai represents a difference of £2 15s on flour, so that tho flour price variation makes a difference of £d to jjd on the loaf, but the difference in the price of bread over the counter in various centres varies by 2£cl to 3d on the 41 b loaf. It appears to Southern interpsts that, even taking into consideration the variation in the price of flour, bread is cheaper in the South than m tho North.- In Dunedin and Invercargill the price is lOd over the counter and at Balclutha, between these two cities, the loaf is being sold over tho counter for Is. In Christchurch over-the-counter sales, as was reported recently, have been reduced in more than 20 city stores to QJ^d. This lack of uniformity, which is thought to be working in some cities against the interests of the consumer, is in all probability claiming the attention of the Prime Minister at present. The storm centre of the protest against the high price of wheat and flour is Auckland, a South Island man stated to-day in advancing the viewpoint of the grower of the South, but when the figures are analysed and the variation in the price of flour throughout the Dominion is taken into consideration it is found that there is still a wide gap between the price of bread in Auckland and in the South Island cities.

What Competition May Do. Keen competition among liakers themselves has shown that bread can be retailed at a lower figure than Is over the counter and the active presence in the market of many small bakers, who are ready to sell at lOd and lower, indicates that even without State action the natural market tendency is for bread to bo forced clown.

In spite of the claim in some places that the current rate is the absolute minimum chain stores' groups in some of the centres are handling bread at cost price, purely as a catch line. In. J'almeriston North, for example, the 41b. loaf is being sold over the counter for 9£d. Any State fixation of the price of bread would necessarily be inoperative until the beginning of March, 1932, when the effect of the reduced wheat and flour duties will berrin to be felt

It is anticipated that keen competition in the meantime might go far toward establishing a stable price.

POSITION OF THE BAKERS

DENIAL OF RESPONSIBILITY. WHEAT INDUSTRY' PROTECTION. Suggestions that the bakers have made common cause with the millers and wheatgrowers in regard to the sliding scale of duties on wheat and flour, and the consequent high prices of flour and bread, were strongly repudiated yesterday by the president of the New Zealand Master Bakers' Federation, Mr. 11. P. Burton. Ho was one of the delegates to the conference of giowers, millers and bakers held at Wellington this week by the Prime Minister, tho Rt. Hon. G. W, Forbes.

"It has been suggested that the bakers of New Zealand have been a parly to this conference with tho avowed object of keeping up the price of bread," said Mr. Burton. "It is necessary, therefore, to make clear that the New Zealand Master Bakers' Federation sent delegates to tho conference simply at the request of the Prime Minister, who wished to have the whole problem discussed. "The bakers as an organisation never have been responsible for, nor have they, advocated, tho sliding scale of wheat duties as a- method of protecting the wheat grower. The arrangement was made originally by the Reform Government and has been ratified by the JForbes Government and since then by a committee of Parliament. It resulted in a fixed charge for flour, on which the price of bread necessarily must be based. "Our federation has never organised its forces to maintain a high price for bread," said Mr. Burton. "As a, matter of fact, the margin of profit to the baker at present is less than before, becauso tho last increase in the price of flour was not passed on to tho public. "Bread prices always have been subject to the closest scrutiny by the Department of Industries and Commerce and if it were not for the sliding scale now operating bread could bo sold in Auckland at 2d a 41b. loaf less than at present. Even with that reduction the wheatgrowcrs would still have a protective duty equal to £3 a, ton on flour. "It is quite evident that the bakers are being made tho catspaw of tho present agitation about the price of bread, and on behalf of the federation I wish to say publicly that whatever may be the result of the statement Mr. Forbes has promised to make, the bakers will take the public into their confidence and state the wholo position clearly and • definitely. "Wo do not' suggest that the wheat industry is not entitled to some forqi of protection, but when that * protection reaches tho present ridiculous state it is high s time the position was reviewed,"