COST OF LIVING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 141, 13 June 1912, Page 6

COST OF LIVING.

— ■—■_ i i. ■ i _■ ii- ■ ■ ■ THE BOY__ COMMISSION. MERCHANTS CO>TTROL PRICES. PUBLIC PAY TWO PROFITS. (Bj Telegraph.—Press Association.) C___STC_URC_, this day. Further evidence was taken this afternoon by the Roya! Commission on the Cost of Living. •Chas. P. Agar, secretary of Taitapu Co-operative D_iry Company, stated that the price of butter was regulated by the price in London, South Africa, and Saa Francisco. The price of butter for local consumption was based on the amount of butter in store for the requirements of the market. Last winter butter was sold locally at 1/6 retail, but it did not pay tbe vompauy, as people could not cat butter at that price, and his company had never recovered the ground then lost. The companies kept the local price of biittPr at a price that prevented I competition on the part, of North Island factories, but last winter North Island butter was sold in Christchurch at 1/«">. The companies did not refuse to supply retailers who did not sell at the price fixed. At the present time some retailers were making a butter a •••cut" line. PRICE OF FLOUR. W. R. Gardiner, flour miller, Cust, stated that the area in wheat in New Zealand this year was roughly one-third less than the previous year. In Using the price of flour they were guided by the New Zealand Flour Millers' Association, but there was no common understanding at present. The ptofit on an expenditure of £9 0/4 was only 4/8, or roughly 14 .per cent. This state, of things, he said, had obtained since last November, and was due to several millers breaking away from the association, which had thereupon _ta.rted to cut. When the Flour Millers' Association controlled his firm they had to regulate their output and charge the prices fixed by the association. The possibility of competition from Australia steadied the pri-ecs in New Zealand, for despite the 20,' duty, the much larger mills ia Melbourne and Sydney could produce an enormous quantity, and the greater the quantity produced the less was the cost. It was I customary for Australian flour-millers to dump their surplus into the- Dominion, i if circumstances were favourable. I C . Y. Simpson stated that he had been a flourmiller for the past ten years, and! never belonged to the association. At i the current price of flour he had to get : his profits out of the sale of bran and pollard. It cost 5/ more to produce a j ton of flour than was received for it. ! TIMBER MERCHANTS' TARIFF. William Coss, timber merchant, stated that the members of the Timber Merchants' Association came to an understanding as to the selling rates of timber. He did not think the association eoold fix highly profitable rates, because it -was easy to start a timber yard. LABOUR AND PRODUCE. David Jones, farmer, gave evidence regarding the increased price of farm land, but said he did not know a single article that was increased in price as the result of the increased -cost of land. 1. did not affect the price of wheat. The wheat export was declining despite the fact that the whole of Southland had gone in for grain-growing. The present year's wheat harvest was the most prolific in Canterbury that he-., remembered,' otherwise they would have had to -import; and they would have to import next year, as the area under wheat was now insufficient to meet the local requirements. The problem in regard to wheat-growing was the insufficiency of labour. Had labour been available at the proper time, potatoes would not have been over £2 per ton : and bacon was likely to be dearer, owing to no boy labour being available. He claimed that the New Zealand produce was producing as cheaply as any in the world. MERCHANTS' ASSOCTATION CONTROL. G. F. Rowe, . accountant to Messrs. (Fairburn, Wright and Co.. read letters received by his principals from the pro-1 Iprietors of. Xeav.'s food, Ca___- ' mustard., Van Houten's cocoa, James Keiller and Sons, aud the New Zealand agents for sipon, in which reference was made to complaints of persistent •'"cutting-"' in the prices of their goods in the Dominion, and indicating that in future prices would be regulated, according to an understanding with the Merchants' Trade Association of New Zealand. He stated that the tariff was submitted by Column's in a communication dated August 24, 1911. Witness stated that the scaled ■ price (net) for Column's mustard in | boxes was 16/, and his firm's price be--1 fore the scale -was introduced wa s 14/5. ' Starch was 47/6 p_r cwt. in the scale j and 45/6 before. The manufacturers' ! prices of these articles had not been !' altered, but there bad been a reduction in the duty on mustard. Robinson's groats (in less than sis dozen lots and more than one dozen), scale 7/6, his firm's price "/: Robinson's barley, 7/6 I and 6/10. Before the duty was removed the wholesale price of Neave's food was between 9/7 and 10/. The scale price at present was 9/6, which i showed that- practically the reduction of duty had made no difference in price to the retailer. The scale price for i sapon 6d. packets in case lots was. 54/6, and his firm's price was 51/. The small line was sold at 22/6 and 20/6. His I principals had forwarded an order to the British Empire Trading Company for 14 cases of tobaoeos and cigarettes, i for shipment to Christchurch, and eight' for Dunedin. The Dominion representative of the company, on October 9, ( 1911, after acknowledging receipt of | the order, added: "We beg to stare, however, that we are not at presen. opening any new account, and there- j fore have not entertained your order." JThe inference drawn from that was that it was through the operations of j the Wholesale Merchants' Association. The prices of galvanised hollow-ware . had been recently scaled, with the effect that there was a large increase in prices. An llin. bucket was increased in price about 20 per cent. The oldl price -was 10/, less 10 per cent, and I tbe present price 15/9 less varying discounts, there being a sliding 1 scale, with . a _a_niU— of 33. per cent and five per j cent, and for ordinary traders 20 per oenfc and 2k .per cent. Til; genera] ef-. feet of these advances when goods were scaled was that the merchant! gained and the publi. 1 paid two profits—; one to the wholesaler, and the other to the retailer. Witness further slated that his -principals considered that the, 'law had been broken by the Xew Zealand merchants, who had. entered into I an agreement to control -the price of suga_. and had 'w_t___._..letter tcthe .___t__t_r for Commerce, a. copy of.. ■ _____ -'aras handed in. _£--___» not read,. ; _s |p___MJSfe " J