COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2415, 22 March 1915, Page 8

COST OF LIVING

A public meeting, to protest against the increased cost of living, was held iii Everybody's Theatre last night, but was not -very largely attended. Mr. C. H. Chapman occupied the chair, and the gathering was addressed by Mrs. Donaldson, and Messrs. H. Holland, P. Fraser, and J. Maddison. .The following resolutions were put and carried :— "That as the present crisis has been taken advantage of by unscrupulous exploiters for the purpose of manipulating the prices of foodstuffs, so as to wring greater profits for themselves out of their fellow-citizens during a time of national trial, and as this process has already produced unnecessary hardships among the mass of_ the people, and is likely to continue ill accentuated form if private exploitation is unohecked, this meeting of citizens calls upon the Government to immediately assume possession of the wheat, flour, and meat supplies of the country, to establish a permanent and independent Court with power to enforce maximum prices of sale, and all commodities; and to ensure by State enterprise that sufficient wheat'is gi;own in New Zealand next season not only for the people of this country, but for the purpose of oxpor tation at a minimum price, to assist the peoplo of Britain." "That this meeting condemns attempts at defraying expenditure arising out of the "war by means of street collections and other semi-charitable methods as being beneath the dignity of a democratic country, and demands that a graduated war tax be imposed upon land and incomes to meet all war expenditure."