PRICES AT BEDROCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 138, 13 June 1922, Page 5

PRICES AT BEDROCK.

NOW GOING UP AGAIN. NEW SEASON'S STOCKS. (By TelegTaph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. 'Price-cutting has brought most lines down to bedrock," said a grocer this morning. "There is now a tendency the other way, and unless overhead expenses ' fall, it is hard to see how a further , drop in the cost of living can come , about. Before housewives can get relief j manufacturers must be able to buy [ cheaper coal, and shippers secure lower i freight rates. Even cheaper railway j carriage rates i n New Zealand would | make a difference. At the present j costs are only a fraction below what : they were in the boom period, the wage reduction by the Arbitration Court having made little difference." Traders are busy making out orders for next Christ- , mas trade, and one probability is a I keener demand for Smyrna sultanas, | particularly as the. Mildura output has | been fully booked. According to merchants, there is a prospect that the retail price of prunes will advance next summer. ! Advices concerning new season's stocks I due to arrive at the beginning of November, show that shippers are asking an additional 10/ per cwt. Cablegrams from America during the past few days stated I that new season's prunes had risen to I higher values than the opening prices, while new season's sultanas, muscatels j and seeded raisins for September-October j shipment from San Francisco are all quoted lower than the opening prices last season. O n receipt of this cable | merchants here immediately covered for | stocks and offered their coverings to the trade. Some big business resulted. Muscatels for the Christmas trade were offered at low rates, but met with little acceptance, owing to the long period before the end of the year. Apricots have gone higher, and the market is still advancing. Butter is being sold retail at 1/7 and 1/8 lb, first grade, and eggs at 2/8 per dozen, but the latter are expected to become cheaper. An upward movement in bulk vinegar rates is reported. A sudden jump in the Java sugar market has added slightly to the I uncertainty of the situation in New Zea- | land. Merchants are keenly interested lin discovering whether the Government j intends the control of Fiji susar, and if not whether there will be a drop in ! price of the Colonial Sugar Company's product. Latest quotations for white Java bring the price very close to that !of the Fiji article. In some quarters there is belief that condensed milk prices will advance in sympathy with the : improved tone of the butter market. | Last week prices of tinned milk rose I 2/ per cue iv Australia.