APPENDICES. 157 



Now it is well known to all tliose wlio have 

 anything to do with the production or the sale 

 of wheat and flonr, that for some little time be- 

 fore the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced 

 his Budget of 1902 the price of these articles 

 was on the increase, and accordingly that the 

 price of bread went up. Sir Michael Hicks- 

 Beach did not introduce his Budget until 

 the middle of April, or, to be precise, 

 on April 14th, 1902, and the table shows 

 that in nineteen places out of the twenty-four 

 enumerated there was not only no increase im- 

 mediately following the introduction of the 

 Budget, but that there was no increase up to the 

 August. In only four cases was there an in- 

 crease of a halfpenny the month following the 

 Budget ; whilst, in one case, the increase did 

 not take place until August. We do not 

 mean to say there was no increase in any 

 other districts— because, of course, our enquiries 

 vrere necessarily limited — but what we do say is, 

 that in the largest towns in the country (where 

 the effect, of course, of any duties AAOuld be 

 soonest felt) the increase, as above shown, was 

 practically non-existent. Does anybody really 

 suppose that, whereas a Is. duty per quarter on all 

 corn sent us produced no effect, a 2s. duty on 

 foreign corn to be sent us (v/ith none at all on 

 Colonial corn) is going to raise the price of bread 

 here? If anyone supposes anything of the sort, 

 it must surely be because his judgment and 

 feelings are warped by political bias ; inasmuch 



