COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1489, 11 July 1912, Page 8

COST OF LIVING.

MORE REBUTTALS. MEAT RING STORY ASSAILED. BUTTER ONCE MORE. NEW VERSION RE CANDLES. TRIAL WEIGHINGS. Tlio Cost of Living Commission heard further evidence in Wellington yesterday. Mr. E. Tregear presided. It was- reported that on the previous evening a tc.-t had been made of certain paekeled groceries.. In the course of his evidence rn Tuesday, F. W. B. Grcville (editor of the "Now Zealand Dairyman") had alleged that lie. knew from expcrienco •when a grocer that many groceries sold in tins and packets wore "short weight." lie offered to buy certain groceries i>t Wellington shops, and to bring those groceries ] and a .set. of tested scales before the commission to prove his assertion. When tho weighing took place, a 2lb. tin of biscuits was found to contain only lib. 7ozs.; a lib. tin of jam, 130z5.; a lib. fin of baking powder, Hozs.; mid a Jib. tin of pepper, 21ozs. These gcod9 were all of colonial manufacture. English goods were found to be net weight; the weight stamped on the packet was equalled by tho weight in tho packet. Some of tho English goods tested were > l'r.v's cocoa, Keiller's marmalade, dolman's mustard, and Price's candles. Kirkpatrick's jam (New Zealand-mnde) was found to be full weight. CITY BUTCHER. STORY OF COMBINE OEXIKD. Edward Daniel Barber, master butcher, stated that lis had not found when making purchase*- that there was any combination among the sailors of stock. The Wellington Master Butchers' Association included two-thirds of the retail butchers in the city. At, times the association had endeavoured to regulate prices, but it had never coerced, and there had never been unanimity when regulation was attempted. Tho stock sold to the retail butchers wns as good as tho stock exported. The cost of delivering meat in 'Wellington he had worked out at ,!IGd. per pound. There were some places in hilly Wellington so inaccessible that the \drivers had refused to negotiate them, and he had gone out on the carts and found that the men's refusals wore warranted. In a flat city tho cost, of delivery ought to be less. Mr. Barber added that Mr. P. T. Moore had made some rash statements before the Commission when ho had alleged that a ring respecting the disposal of stock existed. "I certainly take exception to his statements re combinations, said Mr. Barber. "It is a fair open-market; tho highest bidder is the; purchaser." He added th<it he had been buying at .Tohnsonville for many years, and had always got a fair deal. REBUTTED AGAIN. < MB. MOORE ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

Richard Slingsby Abraham, of the firm of Abraham ond Williams, stated that ho wished to refute statements which had been made before the Commission by Mr. l p . T. Moore. After quoting from a press report regarding Mr. Moore's statements, he said: "I enn only characterise that statement as absolutely wrong. There is no truth ill it whatever." Dr. Abraham went on to say that he had been interested in the fat stock auction sales at .lohiisonville for the last. 20 years. Their trouble had been that they could not Ret tho meat companies to attend and buy at all. So that the effect which the meat companies had had on the market was nearly nil. M«\t companies employed their own buyers so as to bo assured of a regular supply. lie had always.found tho meat, companies willing to fracas for liira, and to treat him fairly, although ho was a competitor, against them for stock. It was quite possible for a c.i.f. buyer to get an order from Homo which would enable him to buy at, say, Is. more than the companies. This naturally forced up the price, but he did not remember any occasion on which'they had not given him satisfaction. The original companies were formed to act on behalf of the farmers—to freeze and to ship care of them. But at -that time prices were so bad that the farmers would not freeze, and the companies had to turn round and buy._ He believed that there was 110 town in New Zealand in which meat was sold more cheaply than in Wellington.

.• BUTTER RING? ANOTHER GROCER'S EVIDENCE. J. F. Turiibull, grocer, stated that prior to four years ago a ring, felf-styled the Butter Committee, used to meet every week and fix both the wholesale and tli'o retail prices of butter, but that the advent of twofresh competitors since then had kept prices within reasonable limits, though there were indications that the committee was about to be resuscitated. He had often had experience of shortweight butter, and lie handed in ji pat which, he declared, scaled less than 150z., and which, from the condition of the wrappers, could, he said, be easily seen to contain more than the normal percentage of water. The damp paper wrapper itself weighed half an ounce, so that, apart from short weight, tho butter merchants received the price of a pound of butter for every 32 wrappers. There were at -least two firms who supplied tho Wellington market who would "hot allow grocers to take more than their regular supplies of butter for fear of the shopmen storing it at certain seasons against a rise in price. Jfr. Turnbull also contended that the Merchants' Association had combined for the purpose of inflating prices. COLONIAL CANDLES, THAT QUESTION OF WEIGHT. Frederick William Manton. candle manufacturer, Petone, appeaved before the Commission for the purpose, he said, of refuting statements which had been made by a witness on the previous day. Hp said that ho had found that mos,t of the New Zealand-made ca,'.idles weighed 15oz. net (not the full pound), and that they weTe not stamped to reveal that fact. He han'ded in a packet of his firm's make which, ho said, weighed 15oz. net, but was branded ISoz. G., meaning lGnz. gross. Mr. Bull had said, also, that the reduced price of candles was because of a reduction in the price of wax. That, to a manufacturer, was very amusing. In tho last 2i years the price of wax, on the low melting points, had varied only ono farthing. The price of the general wholesale candle had been reduced by three farthings in the last 2J years. The caudle business was practically a 11011- • paving one. The Rangoon people had somothing to do with that.

WHY LAND WENT UP. Alexander Anderson Gellatly, a. member of the firm of Ilothun© and Co., land agents. stated that "tlio price of city Rronml rents had increased in the last ten rears. The price luul Hone up nn<l had Rone down npain, but the drop had not been as great as the rise. The same applied to suburban properties, except that in some suburbs there had been scarcely any foil at all. The causes of the ri.se hail been an increase in population, and a rise in prices generally. Tim full followed the emigration of people to Australia and other places. HOUSE FRAMES. Charles Kdwanl IVnlon, timber merchant and builder, Wansanui lva>t, slntH that lie wn<. a member of a firm which lind endeavoured to operate a scheme of n.airinu frame 5 of buildincs by machinery. However, they hnd h.nd lo Oiut down their work? owinE to their being unable t.i get timber, He could not say definitelr vWlw or not. t.hin « j m liscahm tA th« operations of a timber ring, but it jvw.

a fact that everyone else in (.ho place cculd get timber. It look four men a week to make the frame of a six-roomed house; with his machinery (-chemo the same frame could ho made by two mem in a day and a half. SCARCITY OF FISH. .lames Fairway, ex-rcstnurnnfkoeper, tjaid that, the price of commodities nail risen in the last dozen, years, especially in the last six years. Chief among'these items were butler, iiie.it, bacon, fish, and oysters. During tho lasl .six years tho supply of fish had fallen oil somewhat— the supply had not been equal to tho demand. Fish, had gone up .">0 per cent, in price, Stewart Island oysters SO per cent., and rents f>o per cent. He thought Unit, in many lines atfectiug the cost of living, the consumer was outstripping the producer, and the supply, therefore, was being overtaken .by the demand. CHINESE WITNESS. Sing Kce, fruit merchant, Courtenay I'lace, said that he found (he Wellington fruit market quite free ami open. He was not a member of the Fruiterers' Association, but some of his countrymen were. Lately, tho best apples had not been sold at more than fourpeucc per pound. BOURNEVILLE COCOA. Frank Meadowcroft, New Zealand agent for Cadbury's Cocoa, said that ho wished to rebut a statement made in Dunedin; he wished to fay that Bourneville cocoa could bo bought outside any merchant by being obtained direct from tho agency in. Wellington. He had refused to supply wholesale and retail firms who would not agree to'the selling conditions which were stipulated to ensure to Ilia retailer a legitimate profit. TIMBER, UP. Charles Camperdown Odlin, timber merchant, Wellington, deposed that there had been increases in the prices 'of all the good lines of limber in the last ten years. Kauri had gone up about 25 per cent. UNPAID MILK BILLS. John Kirbv, dairyman. Vivian Strept, stated that debts which could not. be recovered were one of the worst features of his,line of business. . GROCERY MARKET "NOT FREE." John Varcne, grocer, Wellington, said that the Wellington market for buying groceries was not free and open. Certain lines could only be got through the associated merchants. One firm ot' Wellington merchants (I'airbairn, Wright, and Co.) had stopped his supplies because he had sold cheaply. A FARMER. James Wall, a King Country farmer, snid, in tho course of evidence, that dur-. ing' the last fifteen years stockowners had had better times than they had had in previous years. N.Z. BOOTS PRAISED.David Kennedy .Pritchard, boot-manu-facturrir in the Dominion Shoe' Factory, Newtown, said that he. deemed it was his duty to appear beforo the coidmission to demonstrate that the-New Zealandmade boots Were superior to the imported boots. Mt. Pritchard exhibited locallf-made footwear in various stages of their making.''Tho commission praised the articles. CANDLES AND BUTTER TESTED. During the afternoon Mr. W. E. Gwilliam, State Dairy Produce Grader, tested and weighed some butter bought locally,' and weighed several packets of candles. One pat of butter sold in Wellington was ljozs. short of the pound. It contained 12.4 per cent, of moisture. Another 1 pat of butter bought in a Wellington store weighed the full IGozs., and a third weighed lliozs. with the paper wrapper. Three kinds of New Zealand-inado candles pealed less than one pound each —15ozs. lidrams net, laozs. 2drams, ' and 15ozs. Tdrams. An English. brand ot candles weighed lib. ldram net.