WHAT FOOD TAXES MEAN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1913, Page 13

WHAT FOOD TAXES MEAN

On 10th January the British Government supplied some instructive figures showing wkat food taxes mean to the British consumer. The information took the form of an answer to Mr. Chiozza Money, who had asked whftt was the average price of wheaif in Germany for 1906 to 1911 as compared with the average import price in the United Kingdom and the price of British wheat in the United Kingdom for tho same years; and what Was the wheat duty in force in Germany in the same years. Tho information was a* follows : — Tho import duty on wheat in Germany for tho years stated was 11s lOd. Tho prices were as under: — United Kingdom. Germany. British. Imported, s. d. s. d. " s. d. 1906 ... 28 S 30 1 37 9 1907 ... 30 7 32 11 43 10 1908 ... 32 0 36 0 43 11 1909 ... 36 11 ' 39 8 48 2 191 C ... 31 8 36 0 42 10 1911 ... 31 8 34 0 42 2 The British wheat prices are the Gazette figures, and that of imported wheat the declared value. Tho German prices are based on the average of prices at which wheat wa* actually sold at about 60 German markets.

Many folk (says an English writer) imagine that Pitman invented shorthand, whereas, of course, he only invented a system. Shorthand • was in use centuries before Pitman. In the fourth century "Acts of St. Callistratus/' for instance, the > compiler states "there is a certain scribe of the Law Courts who listened to the discourses of Callistratus and wrote them down in shorthand on paper, and gave us, and we set in order with all accuracy, his record and outline." Martial, too, in the first century of our era, tells of "notarii" "competent to report verbatim the most rapid speaker." On the Swiss-Austrian frontier Sww» woodcutters found a fatnished girl in a wood, and took her to a village in the valley. The girl, who seemed to be about 18, had only one cyi\ She rouk! only give a vague, rambling account oi herself to the police. She stated that she had been hunted out of her family and Bohemian tribe because they thought she possessed the "evil eye." and eveiy misfortune was put down to her. She did not know het name, but called her«lf Niua; nor did sbp know her age.