NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 August 1918, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

hard Tmm 4. Jq MORE INCREASE IN PRICES. WELLINGTON, August 10. A local soap merchant has just taken the public into his confidence in regard to the enormous increase in the'price of caustic soda, the principal chemical used in the manufacture of ... soap. This ,is a prelude to; oarjsc price of this very necessary household commodity, the bulk of which is made in New Zealand, as we have the principal raw material, fats, available in good quantities. But there are other unpleasant developments to record. The price of wire nails has • jumped £5 a ton this week, and kerosene has gone up sixpence per case. No wonder the cost of building has gone up when nails, which could once be bought at 5d per lb., any size are now 7d per lb. for one inch, and 9d for two-inch," Corrugated roofing, once £lB per ton, is hard to procure at between £BO and £9O, while the 2-ineh netting used for fowl runs, sold prior to the war for 7/6 per 50-yard roll, is now 33/6. Wire is not procurable, and rabbit netting is practically unobtainable Tools have gone up as much as 400 per cent, and household ironmongery, has more than doubled. A good deal of tinware is made in New Zealand, but with tin at over 40/ per case when before the war the same quality was about 12/6, the cost of the tin kettle to the householder can be imagined. A colliery company has written to the Press, stating that it delivers slack in Wellington for 20/4 per ton, but the consumer pays 2/3 per cwL 4