COST OF LIVING

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1926, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

BUTCHERS’ HIGH PROFITS.

(Australian & N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, December 3. Though the butchers gave evidence before the Food Prices Commission in 1925, that twenty per cent, on cost was a fair gross profit, the Food Council’s report to-nay says: — The Council carefully watched the Smithfield retail price lists for the guidance of housewives, ahd found that over a period of twenty-six weeks in 1926, the prices of Scottish and Argentine beef were fifty per cent, above cost, and in one week seventy per cent. The Council questions the worth of lists which do not observe any consistent theory of margins, but appear to be based on individual butchers’ ideas of profits. If witnesses were correct, there should be substantial reductions. For example, beef in October should be a penny fp twopence a pound cheaper, and English mutton and beef 2Ad to threepence.” THE CHEAPEST TOWN GENEVA, December 3. The average family’s daily basket of provisions, including meat, vegetables, bread, coffee, milk and butter, was the basis of the League’s Labour Office’s inquiry into the cost of living in the chief cities. Lodz was found to be the cheapest with two shillings, and Philadelphia dearest 9/1. Sydney was next, 8/1. London, 7/4, is eigth on the list.