PRICE OF BREAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23719, 27 July 1940, Page 7

PRICE OF BREAD

POSITION IN AUCKLAND INCREASE NOT AUTHORISED INSTRUCTION OF TRIBUNAL [BY TKTjEGRATH—.SPECIAL REPORTER]] WELLINGTON, Friday A special statement was made by a member of the Price Investigation Tribunal this afternoon that Auckland bakers bad added a halfpenny to the price of each one-pound delivered loaf. This has been done without authority, and when it was reported, tho tribunal immediately instructed the bakers that the charge bad not been authorised and that they must revert to the previous charge. THE QUESTION OF WEIGHT NEED FOR REGULATION The heavy demand for small loaves of bread that are classed with "fancy" breads and are not subject to weight regulation has resulted in suggestions that steps should be taken to ensure a standardised weight. Speaking of the reversion by the Auckland blaster Bakers' Association to former charges after a brief addition of one halfpenny on each delivered lib. loaf, correspondents complain that this loaf is often short in weight. "Tho half-loaf, or lib. loaf, priced at 3d," writes a correspondent, "is often 3$ to 4o■/.. short of the lib. in weight. To add an extra Jd on to the cost of the already short-weight loaf would be a gross injustice to the purchaser, who is already losing something like 3d in every Is. Unfortunately, only two loaves come within regulation restrictions, the 21b. 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 pass on his increased costs to the housewife, until she feels beset on every side with everincreasing expenses, and finds the rise in wages merely a rise in costs." Another correspondent states that she has weighed her bread regularly for some time past and in no case lias the large 21b. loaf weighed more than Hlb., and the small loaf Jib. and sometimes barely Jib. This latter weight would bring the true cost of bread to something like Is for a full 21b.