THE BREAKFAST TABLE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20075, 11 October 1920, Page 7

THE BREAKFAST TABLE

HIGH COST OF BUTTER. SUGAR TO BE RATIONED. PUZZLING PRICE LIST. Retail grocers are mainly concerned to-day_ about butter and sugar. The urst has jumped to tho extraordinarily nigh price of 2s lid and tho second is to bo brought under a rationing scheme. The future official price of butter is still unknown. It will bo decided when the eommittep_ appointed by tho House or -Representatives makes its report this week. Ihcro is some reason to believe trio Now Zealand consumer will; ootnin a concession in, price, involving ? cuminunfion of tho subsidy now he” mg paid by tho Government. In tho meantime people holding new butter are not Violating apv regulation if they sol! locally on the basis of the Eonah]c PnC0 ’ Rrovided thc profit is rea- " We have been selling a good deal of the new season’s factory butter at Tip 1 1 n Pound,” said a. shopkeeper. Uistomore were surmised at first, but there is not anything like general discontent. Wo are not getting rich out of the butter business. It costs m* Pound and wd have to meet ■IX. per cent working expenses. Everv’lf® hpr ° > 3 Kone ,1p ’ Tmpcianu twine by oyer 200 per cent. Wages uro l 0 per cent higher than they wore before _ tho war.” view hold in some quarters is that the factories pav 2s (Id a pound for butter and sell it to the UJ. U.e f.oloriM £ fat f i V? !l po,m(i for butterPte twp bltter ftnd from 1001U of 2mb ma l ce BolT| ewhero about UUIb of butter. According to retailers die factories, therefore, got about m C t°L of bnttor turned Tint Ulo "\ ew Zealand consumer. That sixpence ]s the margin to cover lie cost water, salt, seimming T ' Tai)ping ’ delivering, and—wmild i Tile, watersiefers tvould declare butter “black” if the price went over 2s Gd was evidently Tl ’° f ’U 1 -' 01 ?’ 3 offlcial ol 'pm, tho Transport Worker.” S avs: "It ttoidd indeed bo a popular strike Tho position regarding the nr 100 of butter is InVTteM Ar ? cra : ! ors’ fight, it is one Si? Rl J, sec T ,onf, . of tl,c workers, it will 1 ;ic . 011 is going to be taken, Tf not fen ,° b ° -Taken nationally. on V cmirso open to ,s t( ? cl<>mand blv the 1,18 T ph ? crs in help To par tho increased price. A wneml protest might have its effect if properv organised. Sliould it come St tlm n waters,dors will Tall in line ” ’ ui lluckei 1 made some charges ini ho House last week. He statre] that he had pnrato information that dairv oompamw had been sending hundreds 1.-S into freezing if would °l ' a r? a [ oturn ' voro taken it would show that there was no short-lb-L°n M °i r a3 , alle!! , ed - Would tint J D lll , :/' h . e a ' skpd - Take a ecnJUS of the butter m cold storage before S , lar[ * d ' *> those people who had been “potting” their butter would he got at. Mr Massey leplied that instructions hhd already been given that all last season’s butter sliould bo sold at the old price. THE SUGAR SITUATION. Christchurch householders can expect to be supplied with raw sugar under a fairly strict rationing sohemo lor nearly a month. I his mornino* tho chairman of 1,1 m Board of Trade (Mr W. G. Mac Donald) confirmed tlio ststiement' tlmt grocers aro to bo allowed only one and a half tons of sugar for every £IOOO of turnover. This will mean that a customer 1 spending a pound sterling will receive approximately 3 1-0 pounds of sugar. Retailers say that this will not. work out satisfactorily. “Tho sugar supply question has been growing steadily worse during the last twelve months.” said u grocer. “Tho last eight weeks have been a nightmare. Frankly I would prefer to see sugar 2s a pound than to bo left short, and to bo worried by the people who think their neighbours are being favoured. If tho Government's distribution scheme makes for a regidar supply and if wo are nil treated on the samo basis, then I will be* nearly satisfied. AVo have just asked for consideration of one fillip point. If as grocery firm has a turnover of say, £IOOO, duo to crockery or a similar line, sliould it receive 20 per cent mote sugar than my store dealing with groceries alone? It should not, of course.” Amazement is expressed at the fact that the wholesale and retail prices of raw sugar are tho same as the prices for refined sugar. The chairman of the Board of Trade would not discuss that aspect, this morning beyond saying that there was very little difference between the two. “ The Government arc getting it both ways,” said a retailor. “ They are saving the cost of refining mid they are not suffering loss from wastage. Evidently they are determined to make up the losses caused by the strike.” Merchants say that m putting raw, or third-grade sugar, on tho market at the price of refined sugar—£47 10s m lon instead of £3o—the Government has deliberately broken its own contract. The Government’s reply is that it has been put to a good deal of expense in regard to sugar by the rise in wages and continuance of overhead charges during the strike. Tho official statement regarding sugar .supplies for tho South Island shows that, from the steamers Bakanoa and AVanaka, Dunedin is to get 230 more tons of refined sugar than Christchurch. From the AVanakar, tho Bluff will receive 520 tons of sugar and Christchurch 310 tons. GENERAL LINES. According to a report furnished by a North Island tribunal “Butchers operating in the city and suburbs of Auckland have been losing money on the retail moat business. The present is to he considered the most unfavour-' able time of the year for butchers so far as prices go.” Christchurch butchers do not claim that thev have been losing money. Like other people they are rather surprised at the Auckland report. One meat retailer said • ‘ fills is tho usual bud season for us but in Canterbury wo arc better off this month than we were last October or in many Octobers before that. AVo are not currying 0 n at a loss Stock has been fairly plentiful and‘wo have been able to sell mutton to customers at 2d u pound less than last year ” Grocers report that they are sellinn increasing quantities of margarine olanut and other substitutes, nt arErc ranging from Is 6d a pound. ' 1 The price of honey has an upward tendency, caused by the heavy demands made recently by confectioners. Though tho wholesale price of dossicated eocoauul hag risen by 10s a: cwt there will bo no difference in the retail price. “Cocoanut is one of the biggest surprises we have had for a year or so,” said a shopkeeper. “First it went up by £5 a. cwt. Then it eased off. Now it is going up slowly again.” Tho fight against the cost ‘of living has taken an unexpected turn in 'many suburbs of Christchurch. _ Household'! ers aro devoting increasing time ami attention to tho cultivation of kitchen gardens. Sales of vegetable seeds and plants during tho past month or two aro reported to constitute a record. Cabbages and cauliflowers for bedding out have been in heavy demand, and lately there has been a wonderful recovery of spring growth. An alarming increase in the cost of living in Now Zealand is shown in tho

% urcs J according to Mr Ho said in the House on Thursday that prices for groceries had practically doubled since July, 1914. Iho average percentage increase in the combined food groups was 71.4 per cent. 1 Prices at Home continue to soar. According to a letter received in tlid Star ’ office to-day, eggs are over 5s 6d a dozen, and, in some places 3s ■ bacbn, best quality, fetches 4s 6d a, poufid; butter is 4s 2d a pound, and sugar nearly Is 9d. Bread seems likely to bo Is 6d for tho 41b loaf. Beef and mutton are clou bio tho New Zealand price. At tho same time clothing and boots arc cheaper*