WAR AND ITS EFFECTS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 99, 26 April 1917, Page 2

WAR AND ITS EFFECTS

TRADE TOPICS

21s FOR SOVEREIGNS,

(FROM OUR OWN CORRSSPONDKRT.)

LONDON; 13th February.

Two Russians stand remanded at Highgate charged with, attempting to obtain gold coins for use otherwise than as currency. The men were caught by a detective-inspector who had been warnedthat the men had been operating in other London districts. One of them used the name of Moss, and told the detective that he was ready to buy sovereigns at 21s each, and that there was no limit to the amount he would buy up to 600,000. He appreciated that there would be a difficulty in carrying so much away, and parcels of 250 were suggested as being easy to handle. In conversation, Moss said he had carried 3000 sovereigns at a time. Later they brought £500 in notes to pay for a purchase. Witness jingled a bag of nails and asked, "What use is the gold put to?" Both men replied, "To be quite candid, 'we send it abroad to a foreign alloy merchant." The detective at this point disclosed his identity. IMPORTED HIDES. Regulations have b«en made by. the Army Council respecting dealings in hides imported into the United Kingdom. The effect of these regulations will be to ensure the use for military purposes of all hides suitable for the production of army leather and to limit the price at which they may be sold to tanners to a figure of 1 per cent, in advance of the importer's sale price. No sales may be made to tanners without a guarantee being given by the tanners that the hide* will be put into work for the production of leather for military requirements. OILS AND FATS. The Under-Secretary for the Colonies gives some interesting particulars relating to oils and fats. The war has brought us to a far greater realisation than ever before of the importance of this^ group of products, one of. several reasons being the enormous quantities of glycerine j which were now required, as aU our I propulsion explosives are made from j glycerine. The Munitions Department, he intimated, had given-great attention [ to this subject, in order that the remaining constituents of the oils should be used.to tho greatest , possible national advantage after the glycerine had been extracted. When the Government came into office they found that the total stocks of oils needed in this country were 500,000 tons and of feeding cake 1,400,0T0 tons. Further we were dependent upon Holland for two-thirds of our supply of margarine. A very large proportion of the.world's supply of oil beans and nuts was produced within the British Empire, and this gave us an extraordinarily powerful position in regard to the world's future trade. The use of vegetable oils for edible purposes was going to increase largely, while the sources of animal fate ■ were not likely to grow considerably, and in. these vegetable oils the Empire had an asset of extraordinary value. SEED POTATOES. A curious situation has arisen between the Board of Agriculture and the. Allotment Committee. Lord Harcourt points out that a a-ecent order of the Board fixing the maximum price of seed potatoes at £12 per ton has resulted in benefit to ■the middleman, loss to.the /grower, and ■expense to the^ planting purchaser. ■County agricultural committees in encouraging small holders to take-up plots of land with the object of increasing the nation's food supply, did so on the understanding that the Board of Agriculture ■/would lie able to supply the -requisite seed ■'potatoes. This the Board appears to be unable to do, but the local committees are given permission to buy outside the scheme at the fixed prices. The lowest independent quotations exceed tho official price', and independent advertisements quote prices three times greater. THE ELEVENPENNY LOAF.' I The quartern loaf is now lid in London, and the increased price will mean enforced- economy to many families. Aftsr itwo years and a-half of war the price of the loaf has exactly doubled. •Bread was sold at sjd in August, 1914. The rise has generally been by halfpennystages except in December, 1914, when the price was increased from 54-d to 6^d. 'Twice, there was a drop o.f a halfpenny— in May, 1915, and June,* 1916. One authority attributes the impending Increase to the rise in the price of flour. "For every 4s increase in the price of flour per quarter the loaf goes up a halfpenny. This is as nearly as I Can express the rule of the trade. No benefit accrues to the bakers. The s£dipre-war loaf yielded more actual profit, than; the 'lid loaf." In the opinion of the trade the quartern loaf -will inevitably rise in iprice to Is. ■ : NEW. ZINC PROCESS. A new. process for the extraction of zinc, applicable to lead-zino sulphide ores containing- iron, has been patented. Tho ore is crushed 1 to 100-meshor finer, j and is separated into .sand and slime, the j pyrite going mostly into the former. The sand is given a sulphating roast. With the furnace charge is mixed a certain proportion of a previous charge containing ferric oxide. The function of the ferric oxide is to act as a catalytic agent to change a large part of the sulphurous 'fume given off in roasting into sulphuric acid; which serves to form zinc sulphate (from such zinc oxide as is produced by roasting the sulphide. The roasted ore is then leached into sulphuric acid solution. Ferrous and ferric sulphates are dissolved also. To remove these the solution is sent to another vat containing a fresh roast, where the oxide of zinc reacts on them and changes them into ferric and ferrous hydrates. Some of the liquor containing the iron sulphate is employed for treating the slime,, zinc sulphate being produced. LOST TELEPHONE APPARATUS. The British Postmaster-General sued a London broker for £3 10s 6d, Hie ■cost of a lost standard receiver. The broker gave up his office and the Post. Office alleged that the telephone apparatus had disappeared. The defendant said that his firm before the war was probably the largest "user of private and other telephones in the United Kingdom. They had private wires to Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, etc., and during fire years paid £26,000 in rentals for telephones. Telephone operators came in and out of their office at all hours of the day and night, with and without permission, doing work, and in his view the telephone in dispute must have been taken away—of course, not dishonestly—by one of the Postmaster's servants. He wasjmly defending the action on principle. The Magistrate thought that the instrument had been taken away by inadvertence by a. Pest Office servant, and he gave judgment for the defendant. FANCY BREAD. The Acton Magistrate has decided that all bread in that' district, whether fancy or otherwise, must be sold by weight. The food 1 inspector charged eight bakers with selling bread otherwise than by weight, and his statement was, " There is a war in progress; there is no such, thing as fancy bread. 1' The bakers argued that the bread in question was brown or fancy bread of a particular make, and it was not necessary to weigh the loaves. The bread was sold at 5d or s^d per loaj. ''Only faddists .use.

the bread," said one of the bakers. " Sometimes a lady has it for afternoon tea as a luxury." The Magistrate said it was clear that the bread should have been weighed, and inflicted fines of 40s in six cases and 20s in two.