ARE PRICES TUMBLING?

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3480, 7 May 1920, Page 7

ARE PRICES TU MBLING?

OR ABOUT To TUMBLE. SOME ARTICLES ARE ALREADY LOWER. The zlVail:l})le evidence is somewhat conflicting. We present the public with some facts that ivere uneartheti to-day, Says a Dunedin Stal‘”'l'epol'ter 01‘ Friday last. Clover seed——the imported ‘al-ticle-is quoted by exporters ‘at a price re-.pl-esenting a reduction of £IOO peg ton. ’

A thousand casks of tallow were offered in London last Saturday WifHout producing a bid. T _ White lead was to-day in Dunedin, selling at £l4 per ton lower than the recent price, and painters’ oil at a reduction of 1/9 per gallon. Adding to these the fact that meat in Britain is cheaper and bearing in ‘mind that the bottom is out of the rabbit skin inau-ket, one begins to ask if it is not possible that a. general cheapening is imminent.

But there are facts the other way. As to the white lead- and oil, for instance, -the reduction -is from what may be fairly termed scarcity prices. Again, there is no sign of hardware coming down; the tendency is upwzird. So, too, ‘With drapery -and all sorts; of cotton and woollens; no.relief looms on the horizon.

This only is sure; that the daily fluctations of the markets will -be

watched wifh a. certain amount of hope tincturing the outlook ‘that has been so gloomy

Related to the question generally is a rather signifiicant disclosure which is me (lii-(:\(j{‘ outcome of the ParliaIneiltnry trip to Samoa-—about the one tangible return for the expenditure on that journey that can so far be traced. Dessicated cocoanut is an article in general and exfensive use by bakers and housewives who do

their own cooking. One of the Par-

'liamentar_v pax-ty——an Otago man—discovered that the Samoan grower gets only £45 a ton for the raw goods. Working from that ba7s"is and all6\\'illg fair prices for transit anti manufacture, it is caiculated that the‘ cocoanut can be landed in Dunedin, and give all concerned a reasoliable pi-ofitfar 103 per lb. Latterly the Dunedin merchants have not been[ able to land it under a cost of about‘ 1/7 per lb. and as a consequence the buyer has had to pay up to 1/10, that]

being the price at which a parcel was sold by auction in Dunedin a few days

ago. Somebody has been raking in a big profit. Unluckiljy' the Dunedin inei-chants are stocked with the highpriced cocoanut, but proba'Jly in aboiit four momhs’ time the article will be sfelling at about 1/ per lb.

The ilnnledi-ate anxiety as to the prices of gene:-a‘L goods is that as importing merchantzs are buying only fx-om hand to mouth. because of the sudden fluctuations, zL"comrnon scarcify nla_\' be thus artifically caused.