Page:Notes on New Zealand (1892).pdf/216

206 animal food. The quartern loaf costs sixpence.

Bakeries exist in all the towns and cities, and in the more populated districts, but on the back stations the bread is home-made, and when camping out "damper"—a kind of cake made of plain flour and water—is usually eaten. Yeast is procurable from the brewers, but in the "back country" is made from potatoes, etc.

Bread is dear, not because of the price of grain and flour, but because of the high rate of wages paid to the men employed in the mills and the bakeries. In fact, this high rate of wages accounts in a great