FOOD PRICES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 8 April 1926, Page 2

FOOD PRICES.

OFFICIAL FIGURES. The Monthly Abstract of Statistics shows Unit the retail price index (Dominion weighted average) lor the three lood . groups (groceries, dairy produce,, and meat) as at February lo was 1631 (taking average prices lor the lour chief centres during tfie years 1909-13 as 1000), involving a fall of eighteen joilits a s compared with the corresponding index for flip preceding month and showing a price level of 52.7 per cent, above that for July, 1914 (n*.. 1070). In the. gro/er.es group a tall of forty-three points has. been ocua siohed mainly byi a drop in the price of potatoes. A rise of thiity-eiSht points in the. dairy produce group is occasioned mainly by increases in egg prices. The fall in meat, which commenced last .November, continues, but at a diminished rate, a drop of nine points only being recorded in February. Higher prices prevailing this year for flour and bread, and to a lesser extent for general groceries, account for a rise of forty-one points in tne groceries group this - February as compared with last, the only noteworthy decrease in this group being recorded in the case of sugar, the price of which has fallen considerably since February last year. All items of dairy produce have risen since 1- ebruary, last, .causing an increase of ICO points in .this group; in the case of the meat group a similar general increase of one hundred points is recorded, prices of beef and pork showing definite increases all round and prices of mutton showing a slight increase in most towns. THE “ALL GROUPS” LEVEL.

.'.Expenditure on ;ood constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of tne toluL expenditure of the average New Zealand household, .states the .Statistician. If th c last ascertained priceindices‘lot- other groups oF- items --kjL domestic expenditure on base: 10U0 foi -July, 1914,4/minusi rent for FebtHihfiy, i.y2(j—viz., 1-742),' .ylotluiig- dinperv and footwear ff/forylebruafOy, .viz., 1573), and miscellaneous item/s- (that'for February, -lpxS , -v.,z,, 1(388) —aro combined lit then - proper To : spective proportions with the food price index for February, 1926 (viz. 1527), and with the-fuel and light price; index for February, 1926 (viz., libi) the restllt is to show' an. increase for all groups’’ retail price level of 62.4 pet cent, over the level of J uly, 1914. Fuel and light hns shown the greatest increase since July, 1914, lollowed very closely by rent. , Miscellaneous itenis, groceries, clothing and dairy produce como next —in tlmt order, whi e meat shows the smallest increase ol all. Foodstuffs generally have risen less than other articles of domestic expenditure. . A tall of twenty-six points since November is the clothing group is due to a fair drop in clothing and drapery, reinforced by a minor fall in footwear. The miscellaneous group show’s a full of eleven points, a slight rise in fui-i nishings being more than off-set by a fall in crockery, while the- remaining sub-groups of the miscellaneous group have exhibited practically stationaryprice conditions. . Fuel and light-. has shown little movement during the past quarter, though the general tendency is a rising one. .Statistics of bouse rents are collected semi-annually' only. The results ol the February collection suggest that the rate of increase in the cost of housing—a cost which has been rising continuously since the outbreak of the Great War—is now slackening somewhat. Ten out of the twenty-five towns considered actually show' falls in the rent index number ior February com. pared with that for August last year, but in most of the larger centres the rise continues. Taking average rents in the fom chief centres during the years 1909 (e 1913 as base, Hamilton shows the highest present rentals (96.4 per cent, above base levels), followed closely by AYcllington (95.4 per cent) and less closely by . Whangarei and New' ~ Plymouth (each 90.0 per cent). Rotorua show's a level of 82.5 per cent above the base level, Auckland 77.8 per cent. Whnnganui 75.5 per cent, Christchurch 75.2 per cent-. 'J'imant 06.1 per cent and Tailiapo 62.5. per cent. Considerably further behind come Invercargill (54.5 pci cent), Masterton (52.7 per cent), Dan nevirko (52.1 per cent), Gisborne (60.8 per cent), Napier (50.0 per cent), Ashburton (48.9 per cent). Dunedin (45.5 per cent) and Nolson (44.0 per cent). Fairly low' house rents are recorded in Blenheim (35.6 per Cent), Oamaru (27.1 per cent), Gore (11.9 per rent), and Greymouth (11.5 per cent), while Alexandra (8.8 per cent less) and AVaihi (20.4 per cent less) .actually show rent levels bel-ow those of-the four chief centres in the base period. The retail price index in the Government Statistician’s comments .as given above may be more easily apprehended by economists than by the general reader. For the benefit of the latter the Statistician gives tb® following interesting table showing bow far £1 will go to-day in the purchase of commodities w’hen comparison is made with July, 1914. These figures are the average for the Dominion generally, and are to December,' 1925, the latest available :

Groceries .Dairy Produce fi. n in ...... 13 d. 11 9£ 8 Kent — 11 8* Fuel and light, : 11. £>i Clothes suid hoots .12 0 A|3 hjnoups 12 23.