-------+-------+-------------+---------+--------------+-------------- | | 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._ A point of some importance is the following:-- In the British budgets only items of which the price changes could be accurately measured are understood to have been included. In our Summary all "Sundries" shown in the budgets are included. But as the price change of only about one-third of them could be directly measured it was assumed that the change in the level of the prices of the remaining sundries varied in the same proportion as the change in the other four groups combined. (D) Results of Different Weighting. Calculations were also made whereby a final figure could be arrived at by different methods, and the following table shows results obtained:-- PERCENTAGE INCREASES ARISING BY USING BRITISH WEIGHTS.