PRICES IN ENGLAND

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160811, 19 November 1920, Page 5

PRICES IN ENGLAND

(Argus Correspondent.)

LONDON, Sept. 23,

Mr McCurdy, the Food Controller, has been making our flesh creep. He tells us that, apart from the effect of prices arising out of a coal strike, the household budget of ah ordinary working class family will be increased 9s 6d a week by next Christmas compared with figures of the previous year. Mr McCurdy estimates that the outlay in a working man’s household (urban) at Christmas, 1914, was 17s Ifd; at Christmas, 1919, 30s lid; in September, 1920 (this present month), 45a 7d; and that by next Christmas the figure will have reached 49s 4d. Among the details of this increase we have 3s 4d for imported butter, which is so stiff a price that thousands of households are now wholly using margarine. One or two really excellent makes cost Is 3d per lb, English butter is about 5s lb. Meat is also hardening. The frozen stocks are diminishing, "and the home supply is petering out. We have 205,530 fewer cattle in this country under one year old than we had twelve months ago, and 647,fi40 fewer ‘cattle of all ages than in 1918. Two years ago there were 27,063,000 sheep and lambs; to-day we have only 13,378,970. Some writers are urging that the slaughter of all lambs should be stopped, and that calves not worth rearing should be graded out. Coal, too, will possibly be dearer, for the controlled price to' the home consumer is said to be less than the cost of production and distribution. Before the war the best household was selling in London at about 30s a ton. It is now over .£3. There is certainly very great cause for ffnxiety, for not alone is the cost of living increasing, but there is every prospect of a severe winter. Day by day most of the news* papers give us depressing prophecies of a slump in trade. Some of their statements are somewhat sensational, but it is an undoubted fact that there is, a check in several of the more important industries, and men ar being dismissed from employment. This may he attributed in part to the disturbed condition of labour. Manufacturers cannot undertake firm contracts, and the higher wages and smaller-output in this country place us at a serious'disadvantage in competing with the foreigner.