PRICE OF BREAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3757, 16 March 1926, Page 78

PRICE OF BREAD.

WORLD COMPARISONS. A defence of the prices charged for bread in New Zealand was made by Mr W. R. Andrews (Wellington) in the course of an address on ‘The Trend of Trade” at Thursday’s session of the Master Bakers and Pastrycooks’ Conference. “From time to time the Government Statistician furnishes a table of bread prices in various centres—Wellington, London. Sydney, and Melbourne —but the discrepancies unfortunately give quite a false idea of the position,” he stated. “For instance, the last given was for this period last year, when flour was ‘well in the air,’ and was something like this:—Wellington, 7d ; London. 43d; Sydney, 53d; Melbourne, s^d. “Now, as the prices are the real ones, at the time it is made to appear that the price of New Zealand bread on the basis of striking a medium of parity is 6Jd for New Zealand, and there seems to be a fear in the trade of taking a stand and stating the true position to our benefit rather than to our undoing. Were the conditions in the Homeland anything like akin to ours, one feels sure that our price, even at 7d, makes as fine a showing in relation to a comparative standard as anywhere else, in favour of the consumer. We shall only state here that, while Home prices look small, it is not so in reality, as at this side of the world wages are double all round. One ton of flour is only 20001 b here and 22401 b in England—an advantage of 2401 b, or 1 1-5 sacks, in favour of the British baker. The large plants contribute to the lower price at Home. We understand their output is the huge total of 53 sacks of 2801 b per man per week; or, based on our ton weight, nearly five times as much as our output per man.” »