The new railway goods rates have also come into force; their general effect is about a 100 per cent., advance on pre-war charges, with certain flat rate additions. A little change of this nature promptly put two to three shillings on the price of coal. All the new Post Office revenue increases have come into operation. Telegrams are Is. for 12 words instead of 9d., with a penny instead of a halfpenny for each additional word. The stamp duties have been doubled and in some cases there is a sextuple increase. This affects all receipts under £2. Next month the present price of the loaf will be advanced by threepence and by twopence more about Christmas. Milk sold wholesale is to be 2/4 a gallon in October as against 2/2 at the same time last year. Sugar has just risen and is now from five to six times as much as it was before the war, Eggs are already 53d. each, and we are told they may be ninepence to a shilling each in the winter. Butter is rising rapidly and is already 3s. a Ib. and may be 6s. in the winter. Margarine is dearer in sympathy, and potatoes, owing to a short crop, and the high
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.