PENCILS, PAPER AND BOTTLES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2719, 14 March 1916, Page 8

PENCILS, PAPER AND BOTTLES

STATIONERY PEICES UP. Wine and spirit merchants, doctors, dispensers, chemists, ink manufacturers, and others ■ are * seriously affected in England , by a general scarcity of bottles caused by the shortage of labour. 'The difficulty of obtaining old bottles has also been increased by the men who used to collect them from houses enlisting, Sec-ond-hand wino and spirit bottles which before the war fetched 12s. a gross aro now selling for 30s. a gross, an expert stated recently. Penny bottles of ink have become very scarce as few bottles of this Ttnid are now manufactured. As the result of tie ■ house-to-house canvass for. old modicine bottles started at Islington about a. week ago t< obtain money to buy a motor-ambulance for the front, 100,000 bottles have been collected from about 20,000 houses and shops. Many_ articles of stationery linve advanced in price since'tho war. The following comparison shows a prominent London retailer's prices:— Copying ink pencils, before the war, 2d.; now, 3id. Blue pencils, before tlio war, M.; now, 2d. Black lead pencils, before the war, 7d. doz.; now 9d. doz. Linen writing paper, before the war, 10Jd. quire; now Is. Id. quire. Brown paper, before tho war, 0(1. quiro; now Is. 43. qiiire.