REDUCTION IN PRICES

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 142, 18 June 1919, Page 5

REDUCTION IN PRICES

SALT, MATCHES, ROOFING-IRON, AND FENCING-WIRE.

(11 TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL 10 THE POST.)

AUCKLAND, This.Day. Reduction in the prices of salt and safety matches and of roofing-iron and fencing-wire was the subject of inquiries made from general merchandise and hardware firms. Salt, which at the height of the scarcity towards the end of the,war was selling up to £18 a ton, had dropped w half that price. The arrival of many transports with largo quantities of salt has caused the fall. A huge shipment from Australia of Japanese matches, of which merchants had no intimation, has been mainly responsible ''for the decrease in the price of safety matches. The present retail price is about half the wholesale price ruling last year, when as much as 8s 6d a gross was obtained. Roofing-iron has dropped from about £95 to £100 a tori to £55 a ton, and fencing-wire from £65 a ton to £30. Indications from the United States point to an increased price for iron and wire. However, shipments from England are most uncertain, arid prices are consequently higher than those ruling in trie States. White lead declined from £110 a ton to £80, but has now gone up again to £90. Raw linseed oil has increased from 8s 6d a gallon to 10s 6d. The whole position in the hardware trade is stated to be one of great uncertainty. The opinion was expressed by the manager of one hardware firm that the low prices at -which some goods had been sold here was due to panic.