COST OF LIVING

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22514, 23 September 1938, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

SO THK EDITOR Or TEE PRESS. Sir, —I am a working man, and like many others, I was led to believe that when the Labour Government got into power the cost of living would be reduced; in fact, Mr Savage definitely promised to assist the workers by reducing the cost of living. I now find that the workers are worse off to-day than they have ever been in the history of New Zealand. The cost of living, in so far as meals and other necessaries are concerned, has increased 75 per cent., and out of all proportion to the small increase in wages. A three or four-course meal which cost Is before the Labour Government got into power now costs Is 9d; in. l fact, the usual thr«e-cour«* aaaJ gfeiabj

used to cost lOd is now priced at Is fid. As tram fares have been increased, it is impossible for the average worker to go home for lunch, and it appears that the Labour Government is now trying to rob him of a hot lunch in the city. Suits that I used to buy. for £3 10s now cost me £6 15s, an increase of nearly 100 per cent. . The State houses are not being built for the working man. Hpw can any working man with a family pay 27s fid to 32s fid a week rent and keep his family as well? The Labour Government does not want the working man or woman to have a little home of their own. It wants to keep the worker as a slave to the State, body and soul, the same as is done in Russia.

The previous Governments have encouraged the workers to build their owp little homes, and have advanced money to the worker through the State Advances Office, the money being repayable In the form of small weekly payments. The worker really pays a small rent, which is used to pay off the cost of the home. The Labour Government does not encourage the granting of loans to the worker. It wants to keep the workers working hard all the time and keep them down as they were before Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. We in New Zealand have earned the right to freedom, but we will not get it from the Labour Government. —Yours, etc., A WORKING MAN. September 22, 1938.