COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2628, 25 November 1915, Page 6

COST OF LIVING

INTERESTING-MONOGRAPH

WAR*jNCRBABE&-ANAIifYBEDf

FoUowing the lines db&fy laid domi by the Statistical Demrtmeiite of .tho older countries, and of Canada arid Australia, the New. Zealand Statistical. Office is extending the range; of {its .work to' cover the production ,'of ing to industrial and economici inquiries, and the first'monograph'on economic matters lis now, issued, in' tho form of a "Report on the Cost of Living in Now Zealand from 1891-1914." .It is.hoped that in the future' it will be' possible to publish the, results ,of- similar-hives-'-, tigations into wholesale: prices,' wages,--unemployment, household budgets,. and. other problems :of this nature, so as to provide a complete compendium of in-, formation relating to New Zealand ecc-< noihics. .','.-.' i" .-'

The present report deals primarily 'with retail prices'in' the Dominion,for the last twenty-five years. In- all,'fiftynine of tho commonest household necessaries are considered, and their prices are averaged and tabulated for each of the four main centres of New Zealand, over the period covered. These commodities are divided into four main groups— groceries, dairy .'produce, meat, fuel and light—and each group, is treated separately, and all groups are then combined. In addition, rent tor various classes of houses is tabulated for the four centres.. The method of the investigation is similar to that used by tho Commonwealth Statistician, so. that-the results'are •readily comparable with those obtained in- Australia.. '-.'■

The report is .issued'by the Government Printer at the nominal price of ono shilling, and may be: obtained from booksellers or fromt tho Government Printer direct.

The Shrinking Sovereign. A chapter is devoted to "The' Purchasing Power of Money," and the figures used for the purpose of comparison show how great has been the shrinkage in.the amount of commodities the sovereign will buy. A table has been prepared to show the relative worth in terms of general commodities (but sta.t-. Ed for convenience in terins of money) represented by a,sovereign during the years 1891-1914, taking the average /'worth" in the years 1909-13 as base, or the 20s. standard. Figures for a.few years will suffice to show how. the sovereign has shrunken in -purchasing .power:— " :

•'■■. •' .- 1899., 1909.': 1913. 1914. l.■■■ Groceries 21- 9} 20- 63 19- 61.18- 7 r Dairy produce .'....'23-9J ffl-lOj 19-, 01 18-113 Meats 22-.H 20-5 19-li 17-31 ■ Food groups (eroceTies, dairy produce, '■■.■■ and-meat) 22-33 20-7' 19-34-18- 2J '-: Bents ..;...:.::...; 23-9 20-4! ,19-33 19-1 All groups.,..». - 22-10i.20- 53 !l9- 3J 18- 61 "■ (These columns are' hot comparable .vertically, but only horizontally.) :':., War Prices. Of special public interest at the present time is the chapter; on "War In--creases." The report shows generally ■•:•..' that prices rose continuously from 1896 :'•' to about 1911, and that in the last two •or three years the tendency to increase was. very sharply accentuated, so that the price level in 1914, before the war, : was already abnormally high. The war broke out in August-, 1914, and; since -that date prices have risen still higher ■i-:.- .above the already higE'..level" of ; 1914. The method: folloived in making the «sVseasment of 'the .increases,. is based on . the relative annual consumptions of the' different items in each group. - .. For instance, equal importance is not given to meat, groceries, and dairy pro- .-' duce. Also, care has been taken to see .that the prices from which the-figures lave been compiled have been the retail prices actually ruling.. It is claim'ed for the figures, therefore, that'they Show acourajely 'the ' changes in the cost of foodstuffs;.to, the mass „of -the .community. '';." 7 :.■ .\. ••"'.'

\ Following are the percentage inoreases in tile costiof groceries for thefour .drincip.il cities from July 1914 to August, 1915:—

Auckland ............ f 17.88,percerit. ■Wellington 21.30 per cent. Christohurcn ......... "12.91 per cent. Dunedin ......:... 19.13 percent. Only two towns snowed a higher percentage increase■'" than Wellington—Taihap 23.68 and Ashburton 28.07—and oidy three towns showed a lower percentage increase, than Christchurcli—, Timaru 11.64, Oamaru 10.47/ and Alexandra 12.77. For the purposes of this calculation, bread, flour, oatmeal, and potatoes are included as groceries. Exclusive of these goods,* and exclusive also of sugar, general groceries have not advanced in price. _' In sugar there has been an average increase in price of 33 per cent. The percentage increase for sugar is, however, misleading, for at the outbreak of war sugar was cheaper in Auckland and Wellington than in Christchurch and Dunedin, and although' there is practically no difference now in fhe price of sugar in these four towns, the percentage increases in price have been: Auckland 38.28, Wellington 43.60, Christchurch 19.07, Dunedin, 31.56. ~."'"' Meat and Dairy Produce; The percentage inoreases in the prices of daily produce have been as follow:— Auckland 13.10, Wellington 8.25 i Christohurcn 11.33, Dunedin: 10.23. Here again,_ as is pointed out,' percentages are misleading, because, 1 although prices in Wellington are still higher than in any other centre, it i 6 also a fact that they were, by comparison with those of .the other cities, higher at the outbreak of war. The. average percentage increase for the Dominion for the period under review, July, 1914-August, 1915, was 11.45 The average inorease in the price of butter to July, 1915 ; was about 40 per' cent., but the drop in prices in August reduced this figure to 36 per cent.

The average increase in' the price of meat in ffiie Dominion was 9.95 per -cent. In Wellington; the increase was • less _ than the average, and the actual retail price also less than the. average in August last. The, percentage in T creases for the four centres were:— Auckland, 4.69; .Wellington, 7.48; Christchurch, 15.42; Dunedin, 8.90. Meat was dearer in Auckland than .in any of the other cities, the'comparative .- index numbers being:—Auckland, 1317; Wellington, 1171; Christchurch, 1235; - Dunedin, 1150. . Since 1891 the price of moat has been advancing; gradually, but in 1912 began a great advance in prices in all the centros, and by 1914 the increase in three years- was as great as in the 20 years previous. Meat was cheaper in Nelson in August last than it was before the war. ■ The Householder's Bill. 'A better idea of the rise in the cost bf living •in the war period may be gathered from the comparative costs of an assumed weekly household consump-' tion of certain necessary foodstuffs, to provide a modest diet for a modest family. For general groceries the cost in July, 1914, would hare been 6s. 7}d.; and in August, 1915, Bs. Id.; for dairy produce, ss. ll}d. in July, 1914, and 7s. 2£d. in August, 1915; for meat, 7s. 2d. in July 1914, and 7s. Bd. in August, 1915. Adding these totals it is found that household supplies for a week which could bo purchased foT 19s. BJd. in July of last, year,, would have cost 225. lljdl in August of this year. *