INFLATED PRICES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8864, 25 October 1907, Page 4

INFLATED PRICES.

If prices for the necessaries of life continue on the up grade in the same ratio as they have increased in "the past, thousands of people in this dominion will soon be reduced to a s'iate bordering upon starvation. Apart from bread and meat, almost every article in general consumption has advanced in price during the past couple of years, and the cost of living has become so great that many families in the cities, and doubtless also inthe provincial towns are obliged to even limit their supplies of substitutes for bread and meat. The causes of the rapid rise in the two latter commodities have never been definitely explained, and perhaps it would be difficult to explain them. Bad seasons in Australia and New Zealand have unquestionably been a factor in increasing the price of wheat, and the increase in the pricas of flour and bread has been a natural carollary; but there is a strong suspicion that prices of bread and breadstuffs have been unduly inflated by the action of the milling trust. The increase in the price of meat is said to be largely due to increased wages, but there are probably many other causes operating in the direction of putting up prices. It can hardly be said, however, that the bakers and butchers are making , an unwarranted attempt to exploit tne people of the dominion, for investigation has shown that these tradesmen are not doing over well at the present time. The "Dominion" newspaper, in its issue yesterday, refers to a multitude of other articles of general consumption which have "gone up" by leaps and bounds recently, included among them being potatoes, oatmeal, onions, and almost every variety of fruit. Recently a Dunedin baker informed the local press that since bread was raised to 7£d the 41b loaf the falling away in consumption had been enormous, already making a difference of a thousand loaves? a week to his firm alone. In Masterton we learn that many housewives have started baking their own bread. The ultimate result uf the ever-increasing cost of foodstuffs will be tha*, a large percentage of the peoplo will have to cjrb their appetites and curtail their expenditure, and the tradespeople themselves will suffer by the almost prohibitive prices ruling.