THE COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2386, 16 February 1915, Page 7

THE COST OF LIVING.

Sir, —The cost of living has become so serious that remedies of a drastic nature will ere long be forced upon the wageearners to enable them to live in the most frugal manner. The Prime Minister touring the country and telling us about the high prices of our products, increase in our exports, etc., is doing good only to tho favoured few. Tho working class are sacrificed by the more intelligent, or I should say by the scheming, few who own the material and can fix their own selling price. There is no.use asking the Government to remedy the evil; evidently they have no wish to do so. They are too closely associated with the prosperous farmers, made prosperous by bleeding tlieir fellow human beings—the patient unretaliating wage-earners—the working bullock who is unknown to himself making the already rich man more rich still. At last election they had a possible remedy, but through their slowness of conception of what the future showed so plainly was ahead of them, failed to use it. Now they are crying aloud about the indifference of the present Government, although onty two months ago tbey had. the opportunity of dismissing it, and from sheer weight of numbers they could have done it. Would the present Opposition have been a better friend to them? I doubt it. Those in high positions and those with lots of property are invariably of the Conservative re-, ligion. The workers will have to combine and by the strength of unity find out the why and the wherefore. It seems remarkable so little was said about the scarcity of wheat until the war broke out. Was there any large exporting by "ones in the know"? The identical same article has been exported and then imported before now. Why should butter have gone up so high ? Is the war affecting the prolificness of the dairy .cows, apej has there been such a tremendous export of meat that meat diet is practically prohibitive in the Dominion P ■ Surely a fertile country like New Zealand should have no difficulty in_ growing sufficient' wheat for s. million -inhabitants. As land acquired under certain leases is subjected to certain conditions as regards improvements it appears an addition to the Act will have to be inserted, making it compulsory that certain classes of land will have to produce cereals necessary to feed the • inhabitants if this shortage of wheat is to continuo. We will have to get a reasonable price fixed for butter and meat consumed in the colony. A rise in wages .has generally brought a rise in certain' commodities, and therefore a rise in products derived from' tho soil should be followed by a rise in wages to those whose. labour produces these products. Therefore let the farmer pay better wages, as he is evidently deriving all the benefits. And look at those in_ business who' directly' war broke out raised the price of many things which the war did not hare time to aifect. Men of this class are the ones the public should mark, and ' treat them as enemies in the future.. Actions such as these show up some of our professedly British patriots. They are nothing less ' than "haby killers,", as by their scandalous prices, they prohibit the father oi a family from buying what is neoessarj for ■ his "babies." Let the public by combination deal forcibly from a reasoning standpoint with tho' food question, and thus force the hands of tie Government. Waiting for the Government to take tho initative they will wait in vain.—l am, etc., CONSISTENCY.