COST OF FOOD

Evening Star, Issue 18175, 16 January 1923, Page 7

COST OF FOOD

HOW THE PRICES VARY. SOME GOVERNMENT STATISTICS. The Government Statistician can have no easy task of it in keeping track of tho variations an .the prices of food in Now Zealand. In his abstract for the month of December, just published, ho reports n. fail of 5 points for November, as compared with October, and an increase of 58.88 as compared with July, 1914. “Very litttle movem&nt,” he writes, “has been recorded in the groceries group, (Jho index number (1752) remaining th© same as that for the previous month. The fall of 38 points in the dairy products as mainly duo to an all-round fall of from Id |to Ijd in th© pries of butter in most towns. In the meat group the index number has risen 5 points, duo mainly to a slight rise ini (tho price of mutton and pork in some towme. Most items, however, remained stationary. ’ ’ All this is clear to -tiro scientific mind (says tho Wellington 1 Post ’), but for the benefit of the housekeeper it may he explained that the Government Statistician takes a figure of 1000 to represent what average prices were as In July, 1914. When he says that tiro three food groups were 1491, he means that where before tiro war an artkiLe of -Mod cost 6d, it now costs 9d. As a matter of fact, tho experience of many people is that some articles are costing double what they did before the war, and some more than double—that is, food articles. It will bo noticed that ‘‘very little movement has boon recorded in tho groceries group.” At 1752 points they stand, as compared with jpnvwar prices, at Is 9d for an article that cost a shilling thou. The Government Statistician comes along regularly with his abstract, but by the time ho is heat'd through its medium something has occurred to put him out of date. The price of bulttcr and eggs is an illustration. Butter was selling ait Is fid to Is 8d in Wellington a few days ago. To-day it is Is 8J to Is lOd. Eggs wore to bo had at Is per dozen close up to Christmas: then they went to Is Id) Now they aim Is 7d to In Bd. The cause may bo that tho hens have “gone slow”; but there is tho sudden jump in tho price. Meat has risen 6 points. This is explainable by (ho demand for mutton and tho export of pork to Australia for curing there, and of tears for tho Australian market.

The rko In the price of butter is explained by ihe great improvement that has taken jpLaco in IJho price of that article in Great Britain. Although New Zealand turns out some of the finest cheese in the world, somehow or other that wholesome food seems to bo regarded in this country

as a soiib oft statistical CfadOTella. _ Omv>fully compiled figures of the domestic consumption of (butter have bean kept, bint when one of the loading authorities in the dairying industry in New Zealand was asked for the amount of cheeso consumed in Now Zealand 3m could! not eay; no records appear to have been kept. Of course, cheese k> bo thoroughly enjoyed must He reasonably well matured, Mid, Me claim, bn accompanied by boer if its gastronomic cxoeUenon is to bo fully appreciated. The addition of a spring onion is said to heighten, its enjoyment and make it no less nutritious; but Cheese and But this is a digression. When meat becomes dear in Groat Britain those who cannot afford it fall hack on dhecso; and when (butter soars “ to heights unknown,” as the hymn has it, then they rescalt to margarine. Excellent margarines are now made, some of them closely approximating butter in fas to, texture, and color; others, th e cheapest kinds, do not come within a mile of it. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Homo Country, however, can afford nothing olsc. But when butter becomes dear in blew Zealand resort cannot bo had to this substitute, because it is not made bora suitable for the table, and it cannot legally be made to look like butter. In Denmark, where the best butter comes from, the consumption of margarine per

head fs the SUgShedt fa the world. Bui ii sdentiflo men wiho hare made a life Btndy of milk are to Ibo believed, no fat in the world, vegetable or animal, contains certain [properties essential to the health of dliildroru Those pnoporiioa mo peculiar to butter-fat. The v.-duo of money spent on food i» Now Zealand, according to the latest figures of the Govoramont Statistician, talcing what £1 would bay in July, 1914, i» aa foSo'Wß: —Groceries, 11b 73d[ dairy pro duce, 14a IJd t meat, 18s Qjd; the three food groups combined, 14s lid., Of food does not make up all that peodto require, and here the Govenmnent Statistician gives some interesting tetaooas w bow tlnings have -risen fikffiffl the ynA Taking his 1000 as a basis, tiboro are tSsa following riess';—Agriouitaral jxtoduoq, 402 s flour, bran, pollard, and oatmeal, 754 ; wool, (hides, butter, and cheese, 463 5 general merchandise and crockery, 815} building materials, 1155; leather, 753 5 chomioala and manures, 442; coal, 1072 1 all groups combined, 820. Rants are not quoted, but building materials bsm soma* thing to do with them. As fo the dtica, WdDingtm ( on the Government Statistician’s snowing, is the dearest of the four cittios in whim to live; Dunodin the cheapest. The cheapest town for food is Napier; the dearest, Invercargill.