The Council, he went on tf say, had conducted extensive investiga tions into the coal situation and communicated with numerous wholesalers, While they had not given the Council definite assurances that coal prices would not soar in the winter, the official said, the opinion could be formed on the general attitude towards the whole problem of coal dealers that the coal situation would give no cause for alarm Coal prices in actual figures had not gone down much compared to last year, he explained, but could be said to have decreased considerably owing to the high increase recently in freight and insurance rates.
After stating that full information regarding the coal, milk and other commodities will be issued soon by his department, the official went on to review the milk market. Taking as a criterion the investigations of his department in one of the big dairies, the official stressed the high price of imported cows which in normal times fetched $800 a head, while today the cost of one of the imported animals would be anything up to $3,600. High freight and iñ- surance rates also affected the equipment used in the pasteurization of milk, which was without exception imported from abroad.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.