CONDITIONS AT HOME.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17318, 2 December 1921, Page 10

CONDITIONS AT HOME.

GRADUAL DECREASE JN PRICES. An arrival , from , Edinburgh by the Toiiic informed a "Dominion" reporter that economic conditions in England and. Scotland were still pretty bad when he left some six or seven weeks ago. Many thousands of men and women were out of work, and the prospects for tho coming winter at Home were tho reverse of bright, so much so that, many young men wore, like himself, seeiang fresh fields overseas. He came out under th e Dominion settlers' scheme; which was attracting considerable attention among those able to make a shift. Under tnis scheme a man had to show that he had a billet to Come to before he was entitled to the concession in fare. In the cases of families wislijng to settle overseas, he understood that : applicants l had to show evidence that housing accommodation wpuld be mndo available for them at this end. -As was apparently the case in New Zealand, the high-cost of clothes was receding very gradually. Men's clothing was still pretty high in cost. A tailor-mode suit at a good shop would cost about, : £lO, and could possibly be obiaiaed-for £8 by- looking round, but prices iMst.'tgtf; down -lower still, for most 6f tho big houses were loaded up with stocksi and; the tweed . manufacturing": mills••in'jsome parts were either working half-time or closed down altoGermany was very active indeed, and scored because in that country the manufacturers were being helped by their Government instead of beheavily, taxed as was the case in the United Kingdom. Food prices were becoming more reason,able, and property values were receding. In regard to residential: property, the .apeje-of the marbet' Was- reached-some 'eighteen months ago, siu'?e when there had been a gradual decline ita values. Naturally employees in all classes of work were resisting the wage-toducing movement, but' it was solely on that account that prices, all round did not fall more rapidly—one - was contingent upon the other.