FLOUR AND BREAD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 267, 15 December 1914, Page 3

FLOUR AND BREAD.

FURTHER RISE PREDICTED. WELLINGTON BAKER'S VIEWS. Press Association. WELLINGTON, December 14 "The price of bread will be advanced in Wellington within a month from now,'' said Mr A. Raven, president of the Wellington Master Bakers' Association, when .asked to-day for a statement regarding the position in which the bakers now find themselves. "The i present price of bread is 4d per 21b j loaf. Shortly after the New Year this will be advanced to and there is no saying how soon after that the next advance will be made, for the bakers of Wellington who have used up their stocks of flour find it impossible to buy more. They are met by a point-blank refusal from the millers, and what little they can scrape together to supply their customers for a few days at a time is being sold to them at a price which makes it imperative that an advance should be made in price. A few months, ago the Government fixed the price of flour by proclamation at £l3 per ton, I f.0.b., but that proclamation has been rendered useless from the point of view of the smaller bakers because a way has been discovered by holders of stocks to evade the law. There is nothing to say that a man who holds flour in stock cannot sell it from the store at above £lP>. Advantage has been taken of this to demand higher prices from the bakers, some of whom for the past month have been paying £l4 15s and £ls per ton for small supplies ex store."

One baker stated his case definitely: "Three weeks ago I applied in person to a firm from whom I have dealt regularly for five and £ half years. I was told that they had no Hour to sell. After some argument they admitted to me that they would sell a small quantity, providing I reckoned it ex store. The price would be £l4 15/-, or, £l4 16/6 delivered to my bakehouse. I was absolutely out of flour, and would have had to shut my bakery up in two days if I had not accepted that offer. At that rate I cannot sell bread at 4d a 21b loaf; 34d would leave me a profit which, is much below the average of normal times."

The position appears to be,rapidly becoming acute. Some bakers, in a,.fairlylarge way of business have been able through strong finance to secure themselves by laying in a sufficient stock of flour until the new season's wheat is ready, but the majority of the bakers have been unable to find money enough to do this. The Master Bakers' Association has been urged by some of its members to raise the price of bread at once, but the secretary of the Association (Mr Clegg) stated to-day that they had refrained from adopting this course because of the nearness of Christmas, but the rise will come very shortly after the New Year, and it seems very clearly the opinion of many of the bakers that the increase to 4-i-d a 21b loaf must be followed by a further rise unless something uappens to give them stocks of flour at a more reasonable price. The importation of Canadian wheat and flour will not, according to Mr Raven, make the price of bread cheaper. The Government would have to sell the imported article at a loss to reach the official price at present ruling in New Zealand. Therefore, the bakers would secure no advantage from the importation, and would not be able to lower the price to customers.