FOOD TROUBLES IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 89, 8 January 1918, Page 3

FOOD TROUBLES IN ENGLAND

The "No Sugar" placard, which wo were beginning to look oiii as part of tho permanent fixtures of every grocer's shop, says a London 'correspondent of tho "Age," has disappeared from most of them. This does' not mean that sugar has suddenly become plentiful. The placard has made way for another which bears in big red letters tho notice "Sold Out." Underneath theso ominous words are a list of things which nro. unprocurable. Sugar, tea, butter, and margarino havo a permanent place 011 the list, and coffee, cocoa, condensed milk, rice and cereal foods appear at intervals. Tho queus outside grocery and provision shops are now a regular part of tho lifo of London. Tho city workers who formerly left thoir wives to do ...tho shopping have now to join in tho task. They hunt among the shops in the city, and their wives hunt in the suburbs in which they live, and in adjacent ones.

Sir James Barrie once explained that ono of his reasons for preferring London to other cities is that it is tho only city in tho-world whore a man can eat buns in the street out of a paper bag without attracting attention. But under war conditions stranger sights than a man eating buns will bo witnessed in London streets. Owing to the shortage of petrol and labour shopkeepers are trying to enforce a rule limiting delivery by vans to parcels over 71b. in weight, and, owing to the shortage of paper, shopkeepers make a favour of wrapping up parcels. Therefore, it will soon becomo a common thing to see tho city clerk walking through London streets to his railway station on his way homo, with a bag of oatmeal wider his arm, a leg of mutton in one hand, and a pair of new boots in the other. But before London .women will carry parcols home an Act of Parliament will have to bo passed to compel them to do so. In the old days 110 woman who cared for her dignity would carry a parcel from a suburban; shop, and the obsequious suburban' shopkeepers used, in their servility, to insist on delivering every purchase, no matter how small. For instance, the fishmonger would send his boy round with a couplo of herrings purchased at a cost of Id., and intended for food for tho household cat. Tho basis of the objection of women to bo seen carrying a parcel seemed to bo that tho woman who did her own suburban shopping and took her own parcels proclaimed the fact that she did not keep a maid. Tho food shortage has.brought about an era of high prices which will last for many years. There are many people who regard tho end of the war as in sight, but no one ventures to predict when food prices will return to the level that existed beforo the war. The sliortago ■in food supplies ■and..in manufactures of all kinds ro- ■ quired for personal and domestic uso will continue after the war is over. The cost of, food is now 100 per cent, above the pre-war level, and tbc_ general cost of living 77 per cent. \Vlles exasperates tho long-suffering iniolu is the fact that they are powerlesto clear with tho barefaced, daylight robbery of which they are the victim! at the hands of everyone who deals in food supplies and manufacturesfrom the producer to the retailor. Lxponeiits of ''til© dismal science of political economy point tviuinplijinily to tho illustration of tho principle laid down by every political economist from the time of Adam Smith thai) short supplies aud an inflated currency mtrst inevitably send up prices. Each one of these factors will force up prices, but when they exist together, as the.f do to-day (the currency being greatly inflated by the enormous expenditure 031 |War material), prices must rise and keep on rising. But political economy, if it has any rcspcct ior itself, ought to be ashamed to throw its protection over the wholesalers aud retailers who add 20 to 50 per cent, to the prices of the goods 011 their shelves becauso people are prepared to stand for hours in queue and to pay high prices rather than starve.

The death occurred yesterday, after a protracted and painful period of illhealth, of Mrs. George Drummond, an old and highly-respected resident of Wellington, and formerly of Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt. ■ The deceased lady came out to New Zealand with her husband in the ship Ballarat in 1868, and settled in Tinakori Road, where the family lived for some years. Subsequently they settled in Stokes Valley, where the late Mrs; ' Drummond was widely known and esteemed by the older settlers. The latter portion of her years, which were spent in Rona Bay and in Wellington, were shadowed by ill-health and suffering, borne with high courage and fortitude. The late Mrs. Drummond is survived by her husband, Mr. George Y. Dr-r.m-mond, three sons—Mr. R. F. Driuumond, the city building inspector; 'Mr. It. C. Drummond, headmaster of Lansdowno School, Masterton; and Mr. 0. lv. Drummond, of Lower Hutt —atd two daughters—Mrs. R..M. Grant, of Creswick Terrace (Northland) and Mrs. C. J. M'Kinnon (of Day's Bay). The funeral will take place to-morrow. The Camp Commandant at Trentliam (Colonel Potter)' acknowledges with thanks receipt of the following gifts to the hospital:—From Church of England, Wellington (per Military Affairs Committee), cigarettes; from Presbyterian Institute (Trentham), cakes and sweets; from Salvation Army (Wellington), cakes, fruit,; and sweets; from Miss Peterkin .(Lower Hutt), flowers.