PRICES SOARING.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1919, Page 12

PRICES SOARING.

NO PKOSEEGT 'KM? FAUx WHAT SYDNEY FIRMS SAY, The good old pre-war times of cheap prices are gone, never to return (says the Sydney, -l>aily Telegraph).. We inav lid them a, long farewell. .Nothing will' ever lie as cheap as it was. There exists a vague hope in the heart of the housewife thai if she only waits a little while the price of dress materials and the hundreds of other things in which she is keenly interested will fali to approximately the level of her purse. She had better not wait. Take the ease of some of the chief staples used in clothing. Wool, judging by the reports of the latest London sales, is steadily increasing dn price. An increase of 5 to ID per cent, is shown. Cotton is in just as bad a way. The war kept cotton down; for four years there have been short crops in America. The southern cotton farmers in the United States have made up their collective minds to hold their present crop until they can sell for at least 30 cents a pound, and also to reduce their 1011) cotton acreage by one-third. Cotton, tliey say, cannot be produced at present market quotations and allow the farmers the right sort of livelihood. They are thoroughly organised. It sounds like a threat of another southern rebellion. If you do not buy cotton goods now you will not be able to get them at anything like the present price hereafter. At any rate, that is what the people who grow cotton in America say. FLAX FIBRE SHORTAGE. What about linen? Flax fibre is normally obtained from Ireland, Belgium, Germany, and Russia. The main supply has for many years been raiseA in Russia near the German border. Russia can confidently be ruled out as a main source of supply. ' The Bolshevik farmer has more absorbing interests. Belgium and Germany are in a similar situation. There remain Ireland and parts of England and Scotland. But the Irish supply is quite insufficient for a world supply, and every item of producing coats ' has increased.

There is little liope of a better supply of any of thc=e staples in tho near future; though Australian wool, if manufactured in Australia, should, one would think, doeree.se in price. But that time occasion to he paid on. 4Ss. '•'Now that pease is signed?" says the housewife hopefully. But peace, as has been seen, will make no immediate differonce in pricss. WORLD OVERSTOCKED. Sydney firms are not hopeful. There is generally admitted to be vast stocks of goods in the warehouses and in the shops bought at pre-war or war prices. The business men were practically forced to purchase those stocks. And the same over-stocking prevails not only throughout Australia, but all over the world. And not only have they these high-priced stocks, but more arc on order, ordered probably many months ago; and they are compelled' to take delivery at. war prices. With all these stocks waiting to be unloaded, extreme care must be taken bv both 'wholesale and retail houses that no financial crisis occurs, which would react upon all sections of the public. This over-stocking is causing vast capital to lie idle with loss of interest and profit charges.

CHEAPER THAN IN LONDON. One large retail house says that, dcsnito the cry about high prices, the publie in Sydney to-day can buy goods more cheaply than they are being bought in London. The local prices for imported cotton and wool goods are lower than the present London quotations. On imported goods customs duty has to be paid, not on the prices paid for them on purchase, but on the prices ruling at tho time, they reach here—probablv many months after purchase. An article bought at Ms duty has on occasion to be paid on 4js. Naturally the shops blame the customs for adding its burden to prices. T!>e rise in wages and the increased working expenses due to industrial legislation are also blamed. Yet it \s a fact I that certain firms have made big profits during the war. The reason is explained bv one house as being due to better management. Though the gross profit is at iTlowor rate than before, by the turning over of the stock more often during the year there has resulted a greater aggregate profit. ° Whatever the specific local and general causes, there underlies all these the general rise in the price of living, with which the rise in wages is intimately connected. That in itself is sufficient to sound the doom of the days of cheap buying and cheap selling.