STILL GOING UP!

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1348, 16 January 1915, Page 4

STILL GOING UP!

WAR AND RETAIL PRICES. THE SHRINKING SOVEREIGN. “She reckoned up and showed him, And showed quite complete, How five and twenty shillings Were expended in a week/’ An old song but at one time very popular in the working class districts of the Old Country. Popular because it set out in the people’s language a wife’s refutation of a ..haige of extravagant management made by r csbauci. The facts hereunder ere g tbered from trustworthy sources to haply serve the same purpose, iO show to the working man who does not know it alreaay that his wile cannot make a sovereign go as far today as she could only "-li mouths agoEvery wee* (so it seems to ner) she finds a rise here, a rise there, in the price ot some article, and the only satisfaction she can obtain is : “Prices 3nd still going up’’ ; “or pnc., cn account of war.” In considering figures given in this article it should be borne in mind that they are as accurate as can be obtained. In some shops the articles particularised may be bought for a little less, in others perhaps a penny or halfpenny more has to be paid. In some cases retailers have made contracts upon such favourable terms as to enable them to sell a given article for less than their competitors. But as a general rule it may be taken that the value of the sovereign since June last has shrunk, and be the housewife ever so careful she is not able today to make it go so far as she was then. Take the following table for average retail prices in June, 1914, and January, 1915 : June. Jan. In-

1914 1915 crease, sds d s d Bread, 4lb 0 7 0 9 0 2 Flour, 251 b 3 0 4 3 1 3 Oatmeal, 251 b 364309 Sugar, 561 b 8 6 11 6 3 0 Sugar, per lb 0 Cheese, per lb 090900 Cheese, per lb oil on 0 0 Butter, per lb 1 3 I 4 0 1

Matches, safety, dozen 0 4 0 4% 0 o| Baking Powder, tin I 0 I 6 0 6 Tinned S, Tongues I I I 3 0 2 Mutton Chops 070801 Beef Steak 070801 Rump Steak 0 9 011 0 2 Corned Roll Beef 0 SIA5 l A 0 6 0 OIA0 l A Leg Mutton 06% 0 700% Sirloin 080901 Rib Beef 0 6 I A 0 7 00% Shin Beef 020301

The meat pi ices above given are for prime quality, booked and delivered, but the prices in the shop for cash are id per pound less. The grocery prices are for cash and booked. The tinned tongues may be classed as “luxurious necessities,” for, while they can be done without, they are found to be the best things possible for an emergency meat meal. Prices vary according to brand, ranging from is to is 3d. Fish is not included because it has not been affected by the rise in price of other articles of food. Its scarcity cr abundance, as the case may be, deter mines its price. Further, it is more generally bought at the counter than are meat and bread. In fact, bread is rarely bought at the shop in Wellington, as in an Old Country town of equal size and importance, where the bread is weighed in the presence of the customer, and the weight short (if any) is made up with a piece of bread —“The Make Weight.” In the purchase of (our or more loaves the make-weight will sometime;,; be considerable. Some bakers substit ’ bun o. cake for the rangement that meeib with the hearty approval of ih* children who fetch the bread. Their mothers, however, prefer. bread.