SOAKING EVER HIGHER

Hokitika Guardian, 25 March 1920, Page 1

SOAKING EVER HIGHER

SOME OF TUB PRICES RULING IN AMERICA. A New Zealander in the United States gives some details of the cost of living. “Prices here seem to be soaring far above the New Zealand levels., lie writes. “Comparisons are apt to be misleading, owing to the difference in the standard of values and the wage o levels as between America and New Zealand, but some of the prices quoted here in January may be of interest. Flour is costing, roughly, £3O a ton, reckoning the dollar at the normal-rate of exchange. Apparently American flour would cost a New Zealand buyei well over £4O a ton, allowing for the adverse rate of exchange. That makes the New Zealand price look cheap. Sugar is being quoted at from 7d to lOd per pound wholesale reckoning still at the normal rate of exchange. The wholesale price of butter is over 2s 6d per pound. Cheese is quoted at about Is 4d per pound. In fact, all foodstuffs seem to bo higher priced than in New Zeaßland. Loud complaints are made, but the people do not seem to expect reductions at present. Prices of crude oil are advancing, and I notice that the Government are drawing attention to the fact that in 1919 the United States produced less petroleum than it used and exported. The American oilfields are running out, and Americans are being urged to assist in the development of foreign fields. That sort of thing cannot mean cheap petrol or kerosene.”