§ MR. JEFFREYS (Hants, Basingstoke)In the absence of my hon. Friend the Member for Central Sheffield, I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture if his attention has been called to the fact that in the week ending 7th January, 1893, the official average price of wheat was 25s. 10d. per quarter, or 10s. 4d. (about 30 per cent.) lower than in the corresponding week of 1892; and whether the information at his disposal enables him to state whether there was any, and, if so, what, corresponding fall in the retail price of bread in either London, Sheffield, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, or Dublin?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. GARDNER,) Essex, Saffron WaldenThe hon. Member states quite correctly that the official average price of British wheat per quarter in the first week of the present year was 10s. 4d. lower than in the corresponding week of 1892. No official statistics are available with regard to the retail price of bread in the towns named in the question, but from the information I have received I should conclude that there has been a general fall in that price, although not everywhere, and for all qualities of bread in the same proportion as in the case of British wheat. I need not, however, point out to the hon. Member that the price of British wheat at the market at which it is sold is not the only factor which determines the retail price of bread. I am to-day informed by Messrs. Barker and Co., Kensington—a large firm—that their price this morning for the finest wheaten bread is 5½d. per four-pound loaf delivered. They state that inferior qualities are sold as low, in some instances, as 3¾d., 4d., and 4½d. at the shop is not an uncommon price.