THE COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2587, 8 October 1915, Page 7

THE COST OF LIVING

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM FLEXIBILITY THE ESSENTIAL. SIR. JOSEPH WARD (Minister of Finance) moved the second reading of tlio Cost of Living Bill. He said that its purpose was to mako possible the regulation, by a permanent board of the prices of all foodstuffs and cf other goods. He recognised that tho problem with which the Ml sought to deal was a difficult one, and he believed that it would be utterly futile to attempt in this country to fix the maximum and minimum prices. Tho experience of other countries had shown this, for in every country where the system had been tried it had broken down.. The board to be set up would have very full powers to control priccs, with the object .of preventing exploitation. The cost of living must necessarily increase in war time, and then the need for regulation must become tho more pressing. At present tho need was urgent, for it was woll-nigh impossible for men of averago earnings to bring up young families. ' Commandeering. He wished to say, liowovor, that he did not approvo of the measure sometimes referred to as "commandeering." It might be possible during war time for a Government to commandeer to a limited or even to an unlimited extent, hut in times of peace any'attempt would bo suro to end in' failure, and wo would find ourselves in very deep commercial trouble. It was truo that the Government scheme for tho' commandeering of meat had been a success, but it had been a success because the Government was authorised to purchase on behalf of a. big buyer at Home—the British Government. The fixing of priccs in peace times would also bo a dangerous scheme: In Committee ho would probably ask the House to insert into tho Bill an amendment to make an oxeeption of those' associations of traders for the fixing , of prices, if tho fixing of prices could ho shown to be 'in tho public interest. A similar claus ■ existed in the Commonwealth. Ho referred to tho celebrated Coal Vend case in Australia, whore it was held that it was in tho public interest that tho price of coal should.be fixed.

, About tho Board. It was undeniably truo that tho cost of living had risen in New Zealand, hut it was also true that tl>o cost of living had not risen so much here as jn tho United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. To deal with-the problem in New Zealand a permanent hoard was to ho set up. In llio Bill as circulated it was provided that there should he three members of the board, one being the Minister of Industries and Commerce, lie proposed to amend the Bill to provide for increasing the number of the hoard to three members, besides the Minister of Commorce. The hoard would sit as a permanent_ body, and it was thought that the Minister would not be able to sit continuously with them and attend to his ordinary, duties'as well, but the Minister could delegate his powers as president of the hoard.

Mr. Poole: Are you going to put n Labour representative on the board? Sir Joseph Ward: I am not going to make any, promises as to that. . ~ . In ray opinion the whole success of this scheme must depend on tho personnel of the hoard. : The members will require to be men. of tried experience and undoubted integrity; they must be fairly paid, and they must be' free from any interference, political or otherwise, in carrying out .the duties they are to be appointed to perform. . . . Tho Government will see that they are practical men, 'for they must ho practical

men if they are to do effective work, and at the same time do what is fair and right to the various interests with which they must como in contact. Sir Joseph Ward said that tho proposal was rather a bigger one than had yot been n:ade to deal with the problem of the cost of living. Our High Standards. He referred to the report of the Cost of Living Commission, and also to the recent report on. tho prices of commodities in Australia, and from tho sharp riso' and fall in the price of goods' during war time ho argued again that it would be impossible to fix prices and at the same time . to deal fairly with the people interested, The New Zealand Rojal Commission had recommended tho setting lip of a permanent board. This Bill proposed to set up a board with very much wider powers. Wlieii the Commission reported, it was thought to bo inadvisable to give effect to the recommendation, but a lot of water.' ha-d run under the bridges- since them,. and tho position had entirely altered. It had been reckoned that the averago cost of food per head per week in families was 4s. s£d. here, as against 4s. lid. in Australia, and in families of more than four, with an income of £169 or less, 3s. Bd. .per head here, as against 4s. in Australia. He was glad to say that the lot of the wage-earner in New Zealand was better than it used to be,' but he wished to remind honourable members that a necessary concomitant of high wages, short hours, and high average standard of comfort, was a higher cost of living. He did not believe we would ever revert to tho old conditions, and the board would be able to take those factors into consideration. The problem was one of grave difficulty. There could be no hard and 'fast rules, and flexibility was one of the necessary essentials, to secure which an attempt had been made in the Bill. No Power to Act. Mr. T. M. V/ILFOKD (Hutt) said/ his chief complaint was that the board' 'had no power to act, but only to report to the Government. The procedure was too unwieldly to catch tlie individual exploiter. He would have preferred to see the board given power to have any 'exploiter before the nearest court to deal with him at onco.

Mr. H. G. ELL (Christchurch South) found practically the same fault with the Bill, that the board had not sufficient powers to deal with proved cases of combinations in' restraint of trade. Referring to tho price of flour during the war, he said the Government could have commandeered all tho wheat at 4s. "6d. a busliel, with which price tlie farmers would have been well satisfied, but/ the Government had allowed this wheat to bo sold'at up to 6s. lid. per bushel. He did not beliovo that the establishment of municipal markets would reduce the cost of living, bcoause many people could not fin\l opportunity to use .the markets. . Housewives could not leave their liomes to j»o to buy in the markets. Even the ordinary cash shops whicli did not deliver goods, but simply sold for cash over the counter, did not help the workers so mucli as they did those well-to-do people who could drivo to tho shops in vehicles and take away their goods. ' Dr. A. "K. NEWMAN (Wellington East) said the success or faijuro of the scheme proposed in tho Bill would depend on tho men appointed to the board. If the board simply fossicked out facts without setting about keeping tho cost of living down it would do no good. He would suggest that the State might do something by buying butter in the cheap season against the time when it would be. scarce. If this had been doiie last summer tho price of butter, need never have risen to Is. 9d. He did not contend, however, that in war time it was possible to prevent the'price'of goods rising. He . made a suggestion that the Government might reduce the cost of living by spending a littlo loss on public works and buying a few trawlers to catch' fish for the people! (Left Sitting.) ]