(_a_) _Comparison of Post Office, Ministry of Labour and Local
Government Board Figures._
The close similarity between the figures supplied by the various
Departments can perhaps be most clearly seen in a different tabular
form.
For every 100 shillings spent by wage-earning classes in July, 1914, the
following would be the corresponding amounts (as shown by the different
returns) which would have to be spent in order to maintain the same
standard of living in March and June, 1922.
-------+-------+-------------+---------+--------------+--------------
| | Ministry of | Mean of | Deviation | Deviation
| Post | Labour and | columns | of (_a_) and | as a
|Office.| Ministry of |(_a_) and| (_b_) from | percentage of
| | Local Govt. | (_b_). | the mean. | column (_c_).
| (_a_) | (_b_) | (_c_) | |
-------+-------+-------------+---------+--------------+--------------
March, | | | | |
1922 | 195.7 | 187.0 | 191.35 | 4.35 | 2.3
June, | | | | |
1922 | 187.8 | 182.5 | 185.15 | 2.65 | 1.4
-------+-------+-------------+---------+--------------+--------------
The last column shows that in general the difference between Post
Office, Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Local Government was 2.3 per
cent. of the mean for prices returned for March, 1922, and 1.4 per cent.
of the mean for prices returned for June, 1922--surely a small
difference considering the instability of prices.
(_b_) _Sundries._