THE FINE ART OF THE PROFITEER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 134, 1 March 1919, Page 7

THE FINE ART OF THE PROFITEER

The action of wood find coal dealers in Melbourne in ' Increasing the price of firewood ,by Id, a cwt." Jins givcu rise to a great deal of indignation (says the Melbourne "Age"). Householder seeking information as to the reason for the increase are told that the wages- of the wood carters have beon raised, and . that it has been necessary in consequence to put up tho price of firewood. But the increase granted to tho cartel's amounts only to 2s. (id. a w«ek, or sd. a day. It will thus bo seen that by charging an i'extra Id. a cwt. for wood the dealers themselves are making quite n nice little profit out of the transaction. For instance, in the case of a dealer employing tiro carters, he pays his men lOd. a day ex-bra, and recovers tho ampuiit out cf the first half ton of firewood sold. On all subsequent sales he pockcts for himself an extra profit of Id. a cwt. Householders would not mind paying the increased cliargo so much if the nionoy ,'ill went'to the carters, who oven now receive only ,£3 a week, but they do object lo tho small jncreaso of wage granted to tho carters being used by wood merchants as a cloak for profiteering.

Since August 5, 1911, thorc were shipped from Folkestone 8,012,32.'! passengers, 3G.690 moltir-cycles, 14,050,461 bags of Government' stores, and 81,010 tons of Red Cross stores, '