FOOD PRICES,

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 51

FOOD PRICES,

ANSWER.TO A DEPUTATION

INCREASE OF WAGES.

LONDON, Jims 24

Mr Harcourt, replying to a trade union deputation regarding State control of food prices and control of wages, said that the vicious system of increasing wages was resulting in increased prices and leading to demands for further increases. That must be avoided. We could not allow exploitation and individual advantages in war time. There Lad been a general advance in wages of 10 per cent., but the actual increase in earnings, through the regularity of work and overtime,' probably worked out at nearer 40 per cent. According to the Board of Trade,, food prices had increased by 59 per cent., but the cost of living, on the whole, had not increased more than 40 per cent. Tho consensus of expert opinion was igainst fixing maximum price-, which cot! 1 net increase the amount of commoditi •..> available, but would merely tend to divert foreign supplies to oilier markets. If the Tood Committee discovered that the public were being exploited and prices artificially inflated, the Board of Trade would immediate! v act.