COST OF LIVING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 19 August 1920, Page 2

COST OF LIVING

.STEADY INCREASE IN BRITAIN

LONDON, June 24. Official particulars just available show the increase in the cost of living winch oecurVed in May. For all the principal items of household expenditure this increase amounts to 9 per cent,, thus bringing-the percentage or increase over the pre-war standard up to 150 per cent. , For food articles the aggregate rise is 155 per cent., or 9 per cent more than list month. A further advance is also recorded under the head of rates, and the fuel and light group, owing to the higher price ot coal, shows an addition of no loss than 40 per cent.. In the ca.se of food tho rise.is due mainly to the increase in tho price of granulated sugar from lOd to Is 2d per 11), but potatoes and eggs were also dearer than a. month earlier. On the other hand, the average price ot milk fell from 9d to 7;(d a quart, and butter also was cheaper. Routs of working-class generally are the same as before the war, except in so far as higher rents have resulted from increased rates. On tho basis of the available information ■it is estimated- that tho increase- in working-class, dwellings on this account averages between 15 and 20 per cent, of the pre-war rents. It is im- j possible to make an exact calculation j of the increase in clothing prices, but I from information as to the movement j of prices of men's suits and overcoats, underclothing and hosiery, textile materials and boots, received from retailers in the principal towns, it is estimated the level of prices, quality for quality, taking goods ot the kind purchased by the working-classes, averaged nearly 330 per cent higher than in July, 1914. In the fuel and light group the average increase in the retail prices ot coal since Julv, 3914, was about 135 per cent at Juno Ist, as compared with 75 per cent, at May Ist,’ the general increase of 14s 2d per ton of household coal having come into iorct? on May 12th. For gas tho'incrcase (allowing for rebate) was about 65 jsbr cent.,"for lamp oil about 200 per cent., and for candles (cheap kinds) about, 260 per cent., while matches show a still greater increase. The last three itcms° have, however, relatively small influence on the average movement in tho fuel aAd light group, in which, taken as a whole, the average increase is estimated at about 125 per cent. Manufacturers complain that Australian and South African jams, which are made from sugar kept at a lowprice by tho Government intervention, are competing unfairly with tho homo manufacturers. Sugar in oouth Africa costs about £3O a ton, and confectioners and jam makers there are realising that there is a market in England foi their goods. In the past, when the world price of sugar was low, South African fruitgrowers sent large quantities of fruit pulp to this country. Now they are sending jam, and there is no reason why they should not send more. An old objection, that tho ]api was packed in tins has less force now than formerly, and the new- tendency i^ ( to look at the contents rather than the; container. For rationed sugar British retail prices now average about Is 2d a pound. In France, rationed sugar is sold at Is Ifd a pound, but it is understood that the Government has to cover a loss cm sales at this price. “Free’ 1 sugar in France is sold at Is 94d a pound and upwards. Ju Italy, sugar costs the consumer 2s Ofd a pound ; in. Belgium and tho United States it is Is j 2d and in Germany a little over Is.