The Price of Bread

Southland Times, Issue 15184, 14 March 1902, Page 3

The Price of Bread

The following is the pith of a reply made hy Mr Geo. Jameson, general manager of the N.Z. Flourmillers' Co-operative Association, to newspaper comments upon the objects and operations of the Association :— The Association are a Co-operative Association of Millers, and not what is called a millers' trust. The Association was formed for the special purpose of reducing the heavy expenses of distribution consequent on each millowcer in, the past having separately disposed of the products of his, mill to buyers residing in various parts of the oofony, and having for that purpose to maintain a separate staff of travellers, agents, and others, and to incur other expenses. These circumstances, together with overproduction and excessive competition, rendered the business not only practically {rofltless, but frequently a source of loss, t was necessary, also, for the millers to cqmbine in order to meet the changed circumstances arising from the Union of Workers, whioh embraced all the milling hands in the colony and raised wages some i 5; to 20 per cent., and reduced the working ours. It was necessary to regulate the output, as the export of flour from the colony Bad practically ceased, while the capacity of the mills was about treble that required to provide the actual quantity of flour yearly consumed in New Zealand. At the time the Association started operations (March, 1901) the price of milling wheat in Canterbury and North Otago was 2s 2d to 2s 3d per bushel, and the price of flour £6 10s per ton. To-day the price of milling wheat is 3s and over, while the price of flour is £8 per ton. As it takes about 48 bushels to make a ton of flour, it is easily seen that the advance of 30s per ton is more than warranted. A few years ago, when wheat was 3s a bushel, and the cost of production much less than it is to-day, the price of flour was £9 per iton, and, so far as I have been able to ascertain, flour has never been less than £9 per ton while wheat was 3s per bushel. There was no outory before when flour was £9 ; why should there be any howl now that flour is £8 ? It seems to me that the members of the Trades and Labour Council and the general publio are being unduly influenced and misled by the literature distributed broadcast by the manager of the Northern Bolter Milts, and the numerous letters and advertisements he has caused to be inserted ii» aIT the .newspapers throughout the oolony, all of which tend to show the bitter feeling be has against the Millers' Association, and to what lengths he is prepared to go, and all simply; /because millers send flour to Auckland— a district he seems to think he has a special pre-emptive right to ; while the southern millera consider that they are fairly entitled to a reasonable portion of the trade, which has always belonged to them, and which ("hey mean at all costs to retain. The reason why a lower srice5 rice is charged iti Auckland is because the fillers' Association do hot choose to allow the Northern Milling Company to obtain a monopoly of the Auokland trade through refusing to enter into : reasonable arrangements which are essential to make the trade fairly remunerative instead of being practically ruinous, as, it has been in the past. It has been frequently represented that the Millers' Association, or their members, combine to keep down the price of wheat. That statement is all nonsense ; facts prove the contrary. A year ago wheat Was worth 2s 2d to 2s 3d per bushel in Canterbury and North Otago. It steadily improved until it reached a prjpe beyond which it was impossible for exporters to operate. The miltprs, if so inclined, might then have put their heads together and; kept the price, down ; but instead of doing that, competition among themselves resulted in a further Bteady'improvement.'.and now milling wheat iB worth a shade over 3s per bushel. The fact is, the Millers' Association have nothing whatever to do with the price of wheat ; eaoh miller sees to his own requirements and acts quite independently. It has also been stated on several occasions that clause 20 of the Association's ruleß reads that " the Committee of Management shall have power to fix prices at an unremunerative rate if it should be necessary to do so in order to suppress unfair competition." No such woras, or any that bear a similar construction, appear in the Association's rules or agreement.. The words have been extracted from a set of rules that jvas suggested to the Association in the early Stages, but never adopted. It will be time enough to cry out and protest when the Millers' Association charge an exorbitant price for their flour, but this they have no intention of doing. Tho Association have no other object than lessening expenses and securing a reasonable profit for what has always been, and would, but for I the efforts of the Association, continue to be a wholly unprofitable industry. [Since the above letter was written the price of wheat has advanced 3d to 4d per oushel.] mmm m^ mmm