THE PRICE OF FOODSTUFFS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 71, 23 July 1915, Page 4

THE PRICE OF FOODSTUFFS.

Discussing the rapid rise in the price of all the chief articles of diet since 1 January of the present year, as set out by the State Government Statistician, ilie Sydney Telegraph says Die figures make very disqi -'ting rmido-g. Proceeding:. the writer says There is no indication whatever that the rise has reached its maximum. Should the war last for another year the price of, meat, even in Australia, at the end otj that period defies conjecture. A us-, tralia is, above all, a food-producing country. The concurrence of a terrib-j |y severe drought and an unpreoe-J dented war in Europe has created great hardships for the poor. A risgj of 11 per cent, in the price of moat within six months and a rise of 171 per cent, in the cost of all the chief articles of diet taken together, must cause downright distress among fam* il'.r’s who can only spend n fixed sum every week upon food. How far the| drought is responsible, and how far. the war is responsible for this startling rise in prices cannot be ascertained with any degree of accuracy. An inevitable result of the rise Is to, direct the minds of politicians towards! the illusory goal of price-regulation by legislation. But there is nothing) at present to show that any real henelit to the community can lie obtained by the legal regulation of prices. All that the Government can do by this method is to lift a portion of the load from one section of the community and. place it on the shoulders of another section. .Matter itsell is not more indestructible than the burden of rising prices. That burden may taken off the consumers of bread and butter by legal action, but it. must, in that event, he deposited upon the producers of the same articles of diet. And robbing Peter to pay Paul is hardly a desirable economic principle.