GOING UP

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 123, 18 February 1920, Page 8

GOING UP

PRICES IN ENGLAND DEMAND FAR AHEAD OF SUPPLY Among the recent arrivals from London was Mr. W. E. Caldow, manufacturers' agent, and secretary of the Choral Union. Mr. Caldow went Home on. a purely business trip, and kept his eyes wido open to ascertain at- first hand what t'lio economic position actually was in England. As tho result ho sweepiirgly dismisses the suspicion that the peoplo in tho overseas Dominions havo not been getting a fair deal. The manufacturers, he was convinced, were up against a great many difficulties concerning labour and material, but they were valiantly doing their utmost to produce imde.r the conditions obtaining, and to givo their overseas clients a fair doal.

"When I reached London in August last," said Mr. Caldow, "the public were etill rationed as regards butter, sugar, and meat. Each person was allowed only ono ounce of butter and six ounce? of sugar a week. As a matter of fact, I saw no butter at all whilst'l was at Home. It was all margarine. If you ivent in for afternoon tea, ono small square of sugar was placed in the saucer. People out here have no idea of the high cost of living at Home. If they did I don't think" the outward steamer's would be so crowded. The accommodation difficulty was a tremendous one. All the London hotels were packed all the time. I was there between August and November, and there were no rooms obtainable unless one had particular knowledge! or a slico of luck. Then if you went into tho provinces you found the same conditions seemed to bo no respite anywhere. To tell you how tho population of London lias increased—before the war the tubes and underground railways of tho big city used to carry an average of four and a half millions of peoplo a week. ■ Last year the average was seven and a half millions a week, and then it was a case of standing most of the time. One had to book days ahead to gat any sort of accommodation in tho provincial, cities. At one hotel I stayed at for a night in Birmingham I had to pay 16s. for bed and breakfast. ,

"In Sheffield,-where some of my principals ar© located, I found all the firms stacked up "with orders that-will keep them going all the year without any fresh orders, and yet these wero pouring in all the time. Stainless cutlery, which was only becoming generally known in 1914, was in enormous demand, a demand that could not be coped with My firm (Lockwood's) had on order 60,000 dozen stainless knives. Owing to this great demand for ordinary "bread and butter" lines, tho manufacturers had not had tho opportunity to exploit the new eteel very much in other directions. That will come later. I should 6ay that, judging by tho accumulation of orders in hand, there is not the remotest chances of prices receding for at least two years. Indeed the tendency was still in the direction of higher prices. They have been advanced even since I left London in November last. Much higher wages are being paid now than before the war, and the only prospect of reduced prices will come when the firms have to seek orders instead of rejecting them. "In tho old days cutlery was, comparatively speaking, by far the cheapest thing in the ironmonger's shop, considering its -utility and tEo amount of skill required in its production, and that statement even holds good now. Before the war one could buy E.P. at 16s. 9d. a dozen at Homo (manufacturer's .price), now they are 375. dozen; E.P. teaspoons, formerly/ 6a, 6d., are now 155.; and case carvers, formerly ss. 6d., aro now 15s. A razor which before the war cost 2s. is now listed at 4s. 3d. Tho ono-bladed pockctknife, which used to be retailed hero at Is., is no more. That class of knife now costs 18s. a dozen for export, as compared with ss. 3d. in 1911. The price of ordinary table knives of medium quality has advanced from 7s. to 19s. Stainless cutlery ha§ advanced 120 per cent.; T hinges, 220 per cent.; brass foundry, 120 per cent.; aluminium, 200 per cent.; locks, 150 per cent.; grates, 110 per cent.; roofing felts, 150 per cent. One firm had an order for tools from Paris that would take ten months to execute,

"I was at Homo during the big railway strike. It. was simply marvellous how well the Government was organised to meet tho trouble. Within two hours of the declaration of the strike the Goternment had dispatched 500 motor lorries to Birmingham and 200 to Liverpool. These were still running when I left, to relieve the congestion on the railways. Railway fares have advanced 75 per cent, all over the United Kingdom, owing to the higher wages to be paid and the higher cost of coal. Two weeks before I left the rationing of meat came to an end, and immediately the price of New .Zealand and Australian mutton dropped 2d. per lb. The docks and stores wero in a terribly congested condition, and steamers had to wait weeks on end in order to discharge their meat cargoes. Here are a few comparative prices of commodities I obtained from the British Board of Trade:— July, 1914. Nov., 1919. e. d. s. d. Beef, per lb. .1 0 8 17 Mutton, per lb 0 8 16 Bread, 21b. loaf ? 0 5 0 9J Tea, per lb 1 fi 2 4 Sugar, per lb 0 2 0 8 Milk, per quart 0 3.J 10 Butter, per lb 1 2 G Margarine, per lb 0 .7 12 Eggs, each 0 11 0 5i Potatoes, 71b 0 4* 0 lO.j Bacon, per lb 0 11J 2 3 Oatmeal 0 2 0 G Coal, ton 20 0 58 G