FAULTY BREAD

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20680, 19 March 1937, Page 8

FAULTY BREAD

AUCKLAND HOSPITAL CONTRACT FLOUR NOT TO BLAME By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 18. In an interview to-day, the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, recalled the matter of the contract for the supply of bread to the Auckland Hospital Board to which a good deal of publicity was recently given in the press throughout the Dominion. Allegations were made by a member of the Auckland Hospital Board at a recent meeting that the bread supplied to the institutions controlled by the Board and to recipients of relief was sometimes unfit for human consumption. Following upon these allegations being made, the newspapers reported that the baker concerned, Mr S. J. Thomas (Crown Bakery Company) who held the contract for the supply to the Hospital Board as saying that the poor quality of the bread was due to the poor quality of the flour and that this in turn was due in a large measure to the Government’s scheme of control of the wheat and flour industries. Expert Investigation “In my reply refuting these statements that the flour and the Government’s scheme were to blame,".said Mr Sullivan, “I promised an immediate investigation into the complaint and arranged for Mr Hansen, travelling baker expert of the Wheat Research Institute to proceed at once to Auckland to see what practical assistance could be rendered and what could be done to supply the Auckland hospital authorities with the best type ot loaf. I promised, further, that on receipt of Mr Hansen’s report I would take such action as was necessary to safeguard all the interests concerned, and I also said that as Mr Thomas did not hesitate to give public expression to his statement in attacking the Government in this connection, I presumed he would have no objection if I made public the result of the investigation which I then proposed instituting. Flour not to Blame “Associated with Mr Hansen in the inquiry were officers of the Wheat Committee and my own department. A report on the whole matter has now been made to me. This report is most illuminating. In the first place it will be remembered that the chief point of attack in the adverse criticism was in respect of the quality of New Zealand flour, and as a consequence references to defects in the loaf followed as a natural corollary. The results of investigations show that insofar as the bread supplied to the hospital is concerned, the inferior or, more correctly, inconscistent quality of the bread has not been due in any way to the quality of the flour. No previous complaints had been received from the baker concerned by the Flour Section at Auckland about the flour. Further baking tests made from flour in stock in the bakehouse of Mr Thomas resulted in the production of a loaf of first class commercial quality. Moreover, it was found that before July 1, 1936, the date on which the present contract with Auckland Hospital Board commenced, the quality of the bread was quite satisfactory, and it is obvious that the bread supplied by the previous contractor between the end of February or middie of March and the end of June would be manufactured from 1936 flour. Producing Beyond Capacity “Knowing the quality of the flour was not at fault, it is not my desire to enlarge upon the factors which eventually resulted in the Board’s allegations being made as to the nature of the bread supplied, but it would appear that the trouble arose through an endeavour on the part of the biker concerned to produce beyond the capacity of the bakehouse. If this statement does not satisfy Mr Thomas in regard to this particular matter, I will arrange for a judicial inquiry under the Board of Trade Act to be held and will make available to the public the whole of the information obtained during the course of the inquiry. In view of the prominence given at the time in the press to Mr Thomas's allegations and the editorial comment thereon, I think it but fair that the same prominence should be given to this statement revealing the true facts.”