COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2190, 1 July 1914, Page 9

COST OF LIVING

LEGISLATIVE COUNCILLORS' VIEWS. Discussing the cost of living during the course of his speech on the Address-in-Reply in the Legislative Council yesterday, tho Hon. J> Barr remarked that they were told that the cost of living increased just as much as the workers' wages, and no raoro. Tho trouble for those who wero going to deal with the problem in.question was to get the proper, ratjo of tho two —the exact amount the public had to pay any industry for an increase to tho employees. He had had a return prepared in a business whore thirty men were employed. Tho increase in wages amounted to £3 16s. on tho whole thirty men. Alterations in cost of many artioles wero made, and the public hail to pay an extra £10. Wherever thoy went in the industrial world they found that tho same thing occurred. Tho employee _ was often worso off by getting his increase ot wages. The continual round went on, of 2d. of an increase in the wage andGd. increase in'tho product which-had to ho purchased.by the eamo worker. The i Government would have to give all their attention, not so much to the increase in wages, hut the purchasing power of such wages. The suggestion had beenmade to limit the amount of profits. He,did not think that was possible, but there should be a tribunal to prevent the worker being fleeced by the middleman; They all know that tho price of land had been created mainly by the land agents. The Hon. J.Rigg said they wero not told.how it was proposed to solve a problem which, they would all agree, was .a very serious one. A low cost of living was bad.for a community. It was a fact that the more prosperous a country •Wα* tho higher would go the coat of living. They must always have a rising cost! of living in a prosperous country, r and a corresponding increase in the remuneration of the workers. At tho present timo those in control of the wealth of the world were reaping more than their fair share of the product of tho workers. Wages, wero always the. last thing to rise. The greatest item in the cost of living was rent. In eomo cases it was out of all proportion to the property. In hie opinion they would never bo able properly to deal with the rent, problem while they had a freehold owner. It was only by destroying epeculation in land that the cost could be lowered. Ifithoy would control rents it would be adyisablo that the State should bo the landlord. Whilo it might not bo possible at onco to nationalise the land, could- they not have a Fair Rents Bill ? The tenant might also be given the right to buy his property on the o<ipitalised value of the rent, taken at 5 per cent, or 6 per cent. He also advocated a eharo of the profits to workers of industries: The only reasonable way was to fix a reasonable minimum wage, and then give a proportion of the profits. Large industries earning huge profits could be compelled to "give a proportion of their profits, for distribution, to the poorer , industries. Monopolies would have .to bo watched, to see that the increased cost was not passed on to the public.. Ho did not see how they could hope to reduce.tho cost pf living by a revision of the Customs tariff, for there were fow items on "which the tariff could be reduced. More protection could be given local products, and that would give more employment.