N.S. WALES BREAD INDUSTRY

Otago Witness, Issue 3183, 17 March 1915, Page 61

N.S. WALES BREAD INDUSTRY

SUGGESTED NATIONALISATION. SYDNEY, March 14. At a meeting of the Master Bakers’ Association Mr Hall (Attorney-general) outlined a scheme for nationalising the bread industry. He challenged the bakers to contradict the statement that by spending £500.000 the Government could deliver the bread at private houses Id per loaf cheaper than the bakers charged. Mr Hall proposes to economise by buying flour in large quantities, eliminating the cost of running hundreds of bakehouses, spending no money on advertising or carters’ bonuses, and sending one cart into a street instead of 20. He estimated a saving of £150,000 per annum on delivery charges alone. There would be no bad debts, the State selling books of coupons exchangeable for loaves. The reduction of Id per loaf would save the people £25,000 weekly and leave a large profit. He proposes to acquire 35 to 40 bakeries and compensate the owners, and appoint an expert board to consider the offers. Mr Hall remarked that a master baker of the future must be prepared to embark £25,000. Already companies had been formed throughout New Zealand in the ordinary course of industrial evolution and without Government intervention. Within 10 years bread monopolies had been established in all large centres. The trade was as profitable as the Colonial Sugar Company, and the Government proposed to forestall trusts in the public interests. March 15. Mr Hall (State Attorney-general) stated that his bread scheme had been his ambition ever since childhood, and his political faith would have been in vain if it worked unsuccessfully, and he would admit himself “ down and out,” Considerate treatment would be given to all men displaced, and those having to get out of the trade would do so undebetter conditions than had been given by private enterprise. It was estimated that the cost of buying the bakery business in the Sydney metropolitan area would be under £500,000. Once this was secured, the Government could, out of the profits, extend the scheme to the larger citie° and Wn. -ntside the metropolis-