LATE MAIL NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1920, Page 4

LATE MAIL NEWS.

QHEAPER FOOD “SOON." BUTTER, CORNED BEEF, AND TINNED FRUIT. LONDON, May 3. A fall in tko prices of food and otlior I commodities was predicted by Mr F. J. ' Biakempre, of Wolverhampton, at the ’ conference, of the National Chomber of , Trade at Bournemouth yesterday. | Soap, he said, had already been reduced by Id per lb., free batter would shortly bo retailed at Gd to 9d a lb cheaper, lard would be 4d a lb cheaper, and butter substitutes would bo reduced also. . Canned corned beef would be sold at ,Is 6d instead of Is lid a lb. 5 tinned fruits that had boen sold at 3s 6d, to 4s 6d, a tin were now reduced to 2s 3d., and ! dried fruits were being sold below eoni trolled prices. I Tlie cause of the fall in prices was that the consumer bad at last taken the matter into bis awn hands, and was not consuming, and warehouses at the ports were loaded with food supplies. Mr TMnkemore emphasised the imperative need of increased production as a remedy for high prices. To get better output we must decrease the cost, and tiiis must not be attempted by lowering wages, but by ndopjjfcig new methods of producing our goods. We must revolutionise our producing system by organising a quick standarised output, such as had proved so successful in AmeriM. Labour was very highly organised, and traders must be powerfully organised if they did not want to he crushed between the upper and nether millstones. .

At Selby (Yorks.) market yesterday the price of fresh, farm butter, owing to a glut, fell to 2s fid a lb., compared with 3s Od. a week ago.

HELIGOLAND. STRIPPING OUT ITS £35,000,000 FORTIFICATIONS. LONDON, May 14. Heligoland, the German fortress in the North Sea, is fast disappearing, and the Heligoland of 1800, the year in which Great Britain exchanged tlie island for rights on the Fast African coast, is re-appearing.

The change lias been brought about by the Inter-Allied Naval and Military Mission which, under the Peace Treaty, is •barged with the demolition of the military and naval works on the island. During the 28 years the Germans were in possession they fortified it at a cost of 065,000,000. Artificial cliffs were constructed and the area of the island was increased by dredging the Elbe (at the mouth of which it stands) and depositing the material on Heligoland. Great gun emplacements were constructed, harbours .were made for war-craft, and later airship sheds wore built. Now they have all gone. The great 12 inch guns have been cut up into sections like round cheeses, the emplacements destroyed by pick and powder, and the harbor works and the aircraft stations are being dismantled, and it is all being done by German labour, under the superintendence of Allied officers.