SOARING PRICES.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1920, Page 4

SOARING PRICES.

FLOUR TO BE DEARER. SMALL WHEAT YIELD. TEA UP AGAIN. Every day brings increased anxiety fof the housewife in respect of food prices. Even the absolute necessaries of life have increased enormously in price and there seems to be no immediately prospects of a decline. In fact, further increases, are anticipated. In conversation with a New Plymouth merchant on Saturday a News' representative was informed that at the present time tho position of the flour market is very serious. This will obviously mean that bread, and the other articles manufactured from flow, will be dearer. The wheat yield in New Zealand for this year is expected to be only about three million bushels. , As the normal cornsumption in the Dominion is approximately seven million bushels per annum, it will be necessary to import four million bushels from either Australia or America. The price of imported Australian wheat will be quite 9s pet bushel, whilst the American market price is still higher. It is expected New Zealand growers will obtain 7s. 6d per bushel. If the present price of flour is to be preserved it is expected that the subsidy Will involve the Government in £700,000 per annum. The present price of flour is £ls per ton, but in the new future the price is expected to soar to £Bl. The leading millers of the Dominion have already informed merchants that in the future only regular customers can ba supplied.

Tea, another necessary household ar' tide, has gone up a further 3d per lb on the wholesale price. Wellington packers are now.quoting tea at 4s per lb. New Plymouth housewives are more fortunate in this respect for tea can be procured here at present at 2s 6d per lb. The shortage of sugar will necessarily increase the price of many household articles. For example, jam has juat risen %d per lb, packets of jelly crystals are as much as 3d per dozen dearer, whilst it is expected that the price of fruit jars, will soon be almost prohibitive. -

BIG RISE IN CROCKERY. Among the many household article* m short supply at present Is crockery, particularly dinner sets. Full dinner sets are practically unobtainable and the prices quoted show fully 100 per cent increase on those asked sevenmonths ago. A local resident quotes the case of a dinner set he bought last May at £0 Cs, for which he would now have to pay £l4. Latest cablegram* frtm London advise an increase of 140 per cent in the price of all crockery, and even at that quotation, the goods are unobtainable. An Ashburton grocer recently reported that the warehouse* of Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland are innocent of dinner sets, and one eading Christchurch firm has 150 orders booked, while it is the proud possessor of only two sets, priced at £ls and £iH each.

Benzine stocks, too, are practically exhausted. The Iceland was ached tiled to arrive with a large benzine cargo W January 10th, but advice has been re. nerved that the vessel will not reach *ew Zealand until the first week of February. This will aggravate an all ready serious position. "If you want anything, buy now, » n i you cant go wrong. Prices will no l fall for two or three years, and are sharply rimng at present." That wal the advice of a southern business man: and he backed his statement by survev> mg the field of prices from furniture to tobacco, jaimand crockery, linen, cottons! and woo lens He prophesied another general rise of 50 per cent on some lines of ordinary necessities and on others considerably more. His reason was the withdrawal from production of 30,000,000 men in their prime for five vearg, andtha reduction of that producing power by death or permanent injury by 25 wr .cent, winch added to world industrial

WHITE LEAD AND WALL PAPERS One indent firm i n Wellington, which handle* a large number of aggies was amenting the fact that advlShS'bS received stating that the price ofwhTta" lead was quoted (in London) at £75 2 per ton, w), ch meant £9O to £95 a tort "r Z ?r' and - Ameri <* ™* n such » Pbgh that she could not quote tl.oS ordmanly the bulk of our wh te S came from that countrv AurtnH pnee., were a little easier, but „ft he°T on [' ""• rUl °" to ° k their ™SI .London pr.ee so that there was vc£ Wtle hope of relief f rom tllat . «£ IfTii •, £2 ' 10s Dar ton - The nricea ".nil varnishes were also soaring On£ tins week agents in Wellington for some for lllr T.' a " list3 ' """In* that Joins'^^'*•■«•"*»• Another allied line that was refWHni the prevailing appreciation was JSt wers. A cablegram lvas a s?^ ; .nel,avo cancelled all lists for the pS