SOARING EVER HIGHER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10542, 19 March 1920, Page 4

SOARING EVER HIGHER

SOME OF THE PRICES RULING IN AMERICA. A New Zealander in the United States gives some details of the cost of living. “Prices hero seem to ba waring far above the New Zealand levels,” he writes. “Comparisons are apt to bo misleading, owing to the difference in the standard of values and the wages levels as between America and Now Zealand, "but some of the prices quoted here in January may bs of interest. Flour is costing, roughly, £3O a ton, reckoning the dollar at th« normal rate of exchange. Apparentlj American flour would cost a Now Zealand buyer - well over £4O a ton, allowing for tho adverse rate of exchange. That'makes the New Zealand price look cheap. Sugar is being quoted at from "d to lOd per pound wholesale, reckoning still at the normal rate of exchange. Tho wholesale price of butter is over 2s 6d per pound. Cheese is quoted at about Is 4d per pound. In fact, all foodstuffs seem to bn higher priced than in New Zealand. Loud complaints are made, but the people do not seem to expect reductions at present. Prices of crude oil are advancing, and I notice that the Government are drawing attention to the fact that iu 1919 the States produced Jess petroleum than it used and exported. The American oilfields are running out, and Americans are being urged to assist in the development of foreign fields. That Sort of thing cannot mean , cheap petrol or kerosene.”