TALL FIGURES.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 77, 22 November 1884, Page 2

TALL FIGURES.

A. writer in the Leisure Hour ghes tiie following interesting summ-iry oj-' the .ton-ehold expenses of the Biibisu people ; — The 35,000.000 of Briti-u people annually consume upwards of 300,000,000 quartern loaves, S)8,000.00(»ewt. of potatoes. 17,000,0<)0ewt. <iF vegetables, 30,000,000cwt. of meat, 700,000,0001b. of fish, s,oi)o,oo.)e\vt. of butter, 2.000 ; 000,0(X)H) of sir-Nir, 170,000,000 Ib. of tea, ], 000,000 ouo gallons of beer, 37,000,000 gallons of spirits, and 14,0>)0,000 gallons of wine, the total cost v ,o the consumers being about £500,000,000, or, if we take the net or national expenditure about £349,000,000. Witnin the last forty ye.trs there has been an enormous increase in the consumption of articles of food and drink in the United Kingdom. Next to the expenditure on articles of food and drink comes the expenditure on articles of dress, principally consisting of cotton, wool, linen, and silk, in boots, shoes and hats, as well as in gold and silver ornaments and jewellery, involving an expenditure of well nigii £148,000,000 gross, or £123,000,000 net or 'real value The house expenditure comprises about £72,000,000 for house rent, some £11,000,000 foi furniture, estimating only the value of annual additions ; £1,0,000,000 for coal, £14,000,000 for gas, and 5.000,000 for water, making in in all £117,000,000. Then there is t.ie expenditure in tobacco, amounting to some £13,000,000 gross, but only £3,000,000 net value. And after' this, there are expenses for education, literature, newspapers, church and chapel, charity, amusements, travelling taxes, and costs of distribution, the grand total befng £«50,000,000 B™**, and £683,000,000 net per annum.