COST OF LIVING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18467, 31 January 1922, Page 3

COST OF LIVING

PRICES op commodities. {FeOU OUB Oww COKEESPOKDEHT.) CHBISTOETDRCH, Jammy 30. The wholesale ratee for floor are bound to fall, aay« the Star, and byi about the end of February bread ought to be one penny cheaper for a large loaf. _ In the North Inland Bakers hare been buying very sparingly* knowing that the price must oome down, and their stocks are now so low that they hare to keep on buying fulj quantities each week for the regular trade. The total demand appears to be as heavy as ever. A merchant said this morning that most authorities expected the first drop in flour to , amount to £3 per too. There was every indication of a record wheat harvest, and world prices > were falling. The tone of recent communications sent oat by Mr Massey to organisations strongly suggested a reduction of the rate f-o.b. was on the cards. First-grade Canterbury butter still sells at Is 3d per lb retail, and North Island butter at Is 2d per lb. The price of North Island butter rose by Id per lb last week. G rotors say the higher price still leaves them a sufficient margin, and most of the city oonsmileiß do not know the difference between first-grade Oanterbury and North' Island batter.. The sale for both kinds is exceptionally good. Cheese is Is per lb retail, with a chance of an early reduction. “We have been offered stocks as low as B£d per lb,” said a grocer, ‘‘but we are not buying a great deal just now. New cheese would lose weight in hot weather, and in any cose the London market is hot fno bright for the producer, The local demand ,is what we look at. CHeeee is hot bought by the average householder unless it is good and cheap. Storekeepers have all the sugar they require, though the demand is heavy. Owing, no doubt, to the high price of factory fines, nearly every household; eeems to be making its own-jam this season, and that has led to a big consumption of sugar. The demand would here been greater but for the comparative shortage of small fruit. Small birds hare caused a lot of damage this yea-. One- grocer complains ,fh«t the price of starch is' too high. He points out that m pre-war times when rice was £l6 per too starch could be retailed at 5d lb. Now rice is £24- per ton, and grocers cannot get starch to sell at a cheaper rate than I* per pound.