CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1920, Page 5

CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND.

CONDITIONS COMPARED. M An English woman writing to a Shfl Zealand friend says:—We were anrala at your saying you could only get aamffl In 101b lots. 1 wonder what on etfttil you would think if you started ho#M< keeping in England just now, far we kit only allowed eight ounces of augat pet! head per week. This costs 8d and mora per pound, and we can't get it if want it. You would be surprised some of our dodgei to make tbilffcl sweet. We even put black fruit pies! This costs 8d andSlOd, ans used to be 4d per pound. , Onfe bat tO hunt the town for golden syrup; ts| .costs Is llid a 2lb tin. We cannot dure the black treacle, for it noils M pies, but we have to &p something tit make them palatable. With regard butter and lard, we farm jtolk, of «oWtfa fare better than others who '«t» «B| slowed 2oz of lard a week and, I so' lieve, the same amount of butter, nil is almost unobtainable, for shflp-CMfm hive not anything like enough to Jfe round. It has all been margarine iong enough, but now that the "oan: trol" has been taken off butter and laid, butter costs 4s per lb to consumers, Mil' we sellers are allowed 3s Bd, and shopkeepers are very glad to get hejd of it at that. As to calicoes andliae£ I believe your prices are always naturj|l« iy higher than ours. I have been gtt* ting some unbleached calioo tewta which we used to use for pudding bapy at a cost of 2|d; it is now le 4Jd jjafi yard. My brother was saying he thinta> water is the only thing that hat. migone up in price.. Lots of prices ajN three times as much as they were, ajgft the goods are very scarce even at thffe) so can imagine you; ten pounds At sugar seemed quite a load to us 1 could get in the summer, with the dfcv ponditure of no end of blarney, for M jam-making was 14lb, after signiS® papers declaring that it was solely fat jam-making. I was told tkey come round to see my fruit treet, Which, by tlie way, Ido not posseait "Bur* is no mistake about it that wheft the! Government are extra careful they ittakvl us women all extra artful. HoiMrer, we are thankful to be alive, and! wob fairly well in spite (K the times. W®. have been killing some pigs tof tlul winter as that is better for' us thdtt de*" pending on what the butchers can fad. us. Last week, however, I boufjfct *5 piece of foreign beef, something ftbouih 2'/. pounds, for 4s 9d, and on Snday*': when I wanted to cook it the gravy -had': all Tim out of it. When we sfliA ii beast from the farm to the marlo£ t|i is nearly always sent out of our qMUtaj try town, and for some weeks non«.<f| our butchers have had English beef. due week my brother sold thirteen be|Mt4, and three of these were divided amomgstt all the butchers of this place, whic& haw a population of ten thousand people. AH;j the rest were sent away to London and" elsewhere. This goes on week week, and the butchers cannot choose* for themselves, but have to take ever beasts are allotted to them. of them have been slaughtering one now' and again on the quiet and dividing them up amongst them—and one JE them was found out recently, but he gore off with a moderate fine, because he hal« only jup.t been demobilised and wag not , supposed to know better. While hi.' was away the shop was shut up. Speaking of houses the correspondent i says: There are some queer houses being jyit up all over the place—mere huts J For instance, army huts cost from 1 !] £250 to £4OO each if they are at all i habitable. They will have to be brought, j by rail or traction for ,many miles, and: 1 then are only wooden liuts after all. Th»;j land is being cut up to ex-service men,' i who will get 10 acres at a rental of £St per annum per acre, and six per cent ii charged on money lent to start them with' stock, implements, etc. How noor. inexperienced men are going tot*live, get married, bring up a family,; nasses my understanding. However,'! England is being out up and let out into ! these little lots, and the result will be ; as usual—the survival of the fittest.

NEW ZEALANDER'S VIEWS. A GOOD PLACE TO BE OUT OP. ' A well known Auckland resident, Mr.' Charles Bagley, returned last week ftfteri an eleven months' absence on a visit i t.o the Old Country. His wif«, un- $ fortunately, was taken ill in England, nnd died at Oakley, after being bed-i jj ridden for five months. Mr. Bagley en« 3 joyed his brief stay at Honolulu on th»' t way home, and also called at Vancouver, "j the roads of which, he states, are eef» ' tainly an object lesson. Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, and the Nla« • gara Falls were all in turn visited. and the late Mrs. Bagley and their daughter-in-law. Mrs. A, Baglev, crossed over to England in the Olympic, 80,0W i tons, "She is more like a small city "j than a steamer," said Mr. Bftgloy. :. ij "England was in a very unsatisfactory' si condition, ' said Mr. Bagley, "more par-'l ticularly in respect to food. We had 2 to pay Ss (Id per lb for fish, meat 2s 6dl per lb, eggs <U each, when we left, yet strange to say there did not seem to b#. ; | any particular scarcity of anything, were supposed to have only Goz of sugar j per week. Beyond that you could not \ buy At any price, yet you could go-into'jj any shop nnd buy as many sweets a* ■*' you wanted, made with boiled sugat, at t twopence per ounce. The Government's , excuse was that if they did not let ' them have sugar to mako sweets, it i would throw a great number of people v. out of employment. During the rail* i way strike we passed through Oxford.';; No doubt England was dangerously Aear ' ft revolution, and the way the Govern- \ ment dealt with the coal question watv 5 to say the least, very funny. The way \ unemployed money was doled out wat.f' just absurd, A man was started to i work in a small town we stayed in, . > After working a week he appealed to " the council for a rise in wages. Hl* reason was that he was paid 6s per week : more for being out of work than for working, and he asked the council Its they thought he was a fool or an Idiot. , It will take some very careful handling ' to keep England from serious trouble. Money is very plentiful. Profiteering is no name for the way money is being • made. Thero is a terrible day of «# reckoning coming financially and otherwise, and in my opinion England is a good place to keep out of for the present." r