COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2421, 29 March 1915, Page 7

COST OF LIVING

tPETONE ENGINEERS' RESOLU- ' ' I'IONS, . A ' meeting of the Petone branch of the< Amalgamated Society of Engineers, after discussing the- oost of living and the question of a war tax, decided to forward the. following resolutions to Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., and to the Press: "(1) That as the present war crisis has teen - 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 the time of national trial, and as this process has already produced unnecessary hardship among the mass of people and is likely to continue in accentuated form if private , exploitation is unchecked, this union 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 of all commodities; and to insure by State enterprise that .sufficient wheat is grown in New Zealand next season, not only for the people of this country, but for puijwses of exportatiou at minimum prices to assist the people of Great Britain. (2) That this meeting condemns atttempts at defraying expenditure arising out of the war by means' of street collections and other semi-charitable methods as being beneath tho dignity of a demooratio country, and demands that a graduated war tax be imposed upon land and inpome to meet air war expenditure."