THE PRICE OF BREAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22964, 20 August 1936, Page 5

THE PRICE OF BREAD

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—Supporters of the Labour Government have been waiting to get information as to the action which the Cabinet will taken when the Prime Ministe"r should find time to go into the wheat and flour question. These supporters have been seriously disappointed by the statement of the Minister of Industries and Commerce given to the press last week. Evidently Mr Sullivan has decided finally that he will support the flour-milling combine. Supporters of one mill—one shift, con-' sider that the extra trade represented by the 4000 tons of imported Canadian wheat should have been so applied as to raise the mills under one shift to a full running week. Mr Sullivan's idea is different; the bigger the present allocation of a mill, the bigger quantity of new trade that mill gets. The Government was put in office by the workers of New Zealand, on the understanding that the small man and the consumer should be protected and that exploitation by big capital should be checked. Mr Sullivan seems to have changed his views completely since he became a Minister. He has now had six months to make himself conversant with milling conditions, and can no longer plead ignorance of them. The workers have profited nothing from the Government control of bread. On the contrary the price in Dunedin increased by 2d a loaf from March 1. It is stated, too, that millers outside the combine are in rather desperate straits. It is very significant that the Opposition has said nothing in the House concerning the management of the Wheat Committee. Nothing could be better from its point of view than that which has happened. From questions asked recently in Parliament an additional rise in the price of bread is to be expected. A member jibed at objectors to the increase in price, saying that bread cost less than a penny a day per head. He has little idea what a 25 per cent, rise in bread has meant to big families all these months. Even with rising wages, the workers of this city cannot bear many more additions to their living expenses.—l am, etc., Consumer.