PRICE OF TEA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25270, 23 August 1947, Page 3

PRICE OF TEA

Sir, —A correspondent in your issue of August 21 wants to know why there is such a disparity between the price of tea in Australia and in New Zealand. Why single out tea, because in many other articles there is a similar disparity? A local member of Parliament, in addressing a protest meeting of the Housewives’ Union on August 4 said that £lOO in New Zealand purchased as much as £ll2 in Australia; yet a member of the Commonwealth Parliament stated that £BO in Australia had the same purchasing as £lOO in New Zealand and £l5O in England. From extensive experience in Australia I consider the Australian member is near the mark, but many visitors to the Commonwealth appear to consider that New Zealand costs are at least 25 peiffflcent. higher and in the case of fruit 75 per cent, higher.— Yours, etc., a * ™ „ OBSERVER. August 22, 1947.

Sir,—May I endorse the statement made by “I Wonder Why” about the price of tea in Australia. Arriving in New Zealand before the war, I was disgusted to discover the enormous difference in prices for goods identically the same in Australia. Tea was one glaring example. The same brand in Australia was 2s per lb, and in Christchurch 3s 6d per lb. Can Mr Nash explain that away? Coolie labour had not advanced then! Oh, no! Expensive cars and advanced salaries of members must be met somehow, so let the old pensioners pay, and deprive them of their one luxury—tea.— Yours, etc., ANOTHER DISGRUNTLED IMMIGRANT. August 22, 1947.