STILL RISING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2901, 13 October 1916, Page 4

STILL RISING

' " ■ THE COST OF LIVING, The increase in the cost of living throughout New and pariicuk\rly m Wellington, is illustrated again, by figures published in the Government ■ Statistician's "Monthly Abstract of Statistics." The .figures admittedly are not exact, owing to the difficulty of collecting comprehensive statistics re-! Harding prides and of making compart- j sons on absolutely fair bases, as among the various centres. But they indicate : the position with a fair degree of aoouracy, and show that the position of the Wellington family, compelled to pay living expenses from a fixed in-, come, grows steadily worse, actually! and relatively. ''•'.! If the average annual ejroendfture of; a Wellington family on rent during the j period 1909-18 is represented by ..the ; index number 1000, the average rent; to-day may "be indicated by the num- j berlSll. Eaxjhof the other large cenq tres has witnessed an actual decrease j in rents, thefigures on tKe basis given I above being: Auckland, 925; Christ! church, 911; Dunedin, D 22. The Do-'! minion average over 25 towns is 964Apparently Wellington people alone are suffering this burden, of increased rents during the war period. The compare son, it may be mentioned, is not entire--ly a fair one. . Th« Statistician compares the rent of a four-roomed _or sixroomed house in Wellington with the; rents of a corresponding house, in, say*! Ohristcnurch, and does not' take intoj account the fact that in most cases the 1 Christchurch house would be the better; residence, with the larger area ofi ground attached. The. system, of,index numbers is ap-. plied to other-items of expenditure, the, number 1000' representing the 1909-13' average in each case. The general rise-, in the cost of the necessaries of life; since the outbreak of war is shown ag : follow:— Dairy Groceries, produce. Meat'.: Auckland 1169 1334 1411'! Wellington 1243 1466 1265' Christchurch ....• 1146 1267 12851 Dunedin ....... 1152 1319 1252 : 25 towns ;.., 118-4 1330 1330 The decline in the purchasing power! of the sovereign is shown by the Gov-] ernment Statistician in a series of] tables, based upon the figures, thati hav'o been collected by Government of-! ficers regarding the cost of comniodv-! ties in the various centres. If the ay-; orage purchasing power of the pound l j sterling during the period 1909-13 isi taken as the basip.. and is regarded ns, 205., tho worth of the sovereign now is; approximately, as follows, iiccord-'. ing to the articles pnrohascd :—Grocer-' ies. 16s. 103 d.; dairy produoe, 15s-; Old.; meat, 15s; Old.';, average of threef groups, 15s. 9Jd. _ ' The position can fie illnstrated in;' another way. To take the case of Wel-l lington, the snms Tecftrired at various* dates to purchase what would have: cost 20s.' on tho average of the four! centres in 1909-13.. were as follow:— 1914. 235. 6Jd.: 1915, 245. IOJd.; Juiia cpiarter, 1916, ,265. ljd.