THE COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 35, 5 November 1917, Page 6

THE COST OF LIVING

COMMITTEE'S REPORT

POOD CONTROL AND PRICE FIXING

Cabinet has not yet considered what is to be done, or whether anything is to bo done, about the recommendations of the Cost of Living Committee, which sat during the session. The most important, of the recommendations was lliat a food controller should be appointed. At first the suggestion was that he thould have special over-riding powers to make him to a degree independent of Cabinet, but when this proposal received such a hostile reception from Ministers, and even from members of tho House, the committee reconsidered the question, and brought down a recommendation from which all reference to special plenary powers had been deleted. The committee still asked, however, for the appointment of a food controller. If the recommendation wero adopted as it now stands it would mean that it would become the special duty of a particular Minister to give attention to the cost of living problem, bnt as the Minister would always be subject to Cabinet, tho geiwral opinion of members of the House was that there was no value in the proposal.

It is not very likely that Cabinet -will take much account of the proposal. Experience with the Board of Trade has shown that it is not safe to act in matters pertaining to trade without careful inquiry, and it is contemplated even in the report of the committee tliat these inquiries shall bo made in the future as in the past by the Bgard of Trade, which will still be a- purely advisory body. In any case it is unlikely that the Government will go in for a scheme of such drastic expedients as price-fixing. Most of the complaint last 3 ear -was as to the price of meat and putter. The Government has been doing something to keep tho price of meat steady in places where it is considered by the Board of Trade to be too high, but the board lias found that in some places, notably Wellington. the price of meat for cash, without delivery, is quito as low as the price at which tho Government could arrange to sell from Imperial supplies :n the cold stores; and a disadvantage of the Government plan would be that the meat would be frozen. A. suggestion made by the Prime Minister in the course of debate ou the subject was that people could savo much of the cost; of such things for household consumption as meat if they would go to the shop for it and pay for it, and take the parcel home, and it is possible that the Board of Trade may be able to get from shopkeepers special terms for people willing to i'o business on theso terms. It was the opinion of Mr. Massey that prices conld bo reduced considerably if business were done en these terms, and also that people would gain by makinz their purchases more economically. Further than this the Government is not very likely to go in regard to the price of meal.. Butter may bo aa high in price this year as it was last year, but there is not much chauco of its rising any higher, and at least some chance of a reduction in price. TIIO price at which the output is being sold to the Imperial Government is t qui vnlent to about Is. Bd. retail, but much depends on the terms on which the butter is sold to the Imperial authorities. These terms have not yet been disclosed. Tho price to be paid is for butter f.0.b., but if the producers have ti# wait for ,-n opportunity to ship before they are paid, as lliey very probably will havo to wait, for a very long time, they may be prepared to reducc the price for tho local market.

Ono'of the worst burdens on the wngeearner in this city is tho big pi-ojyortion of earnings which must be paid in rent. Steps lmve been takou to denl <-ilh rents more effectively than was possible under the logislntion of 1!)1G. Initiative in a plea for tho reduction of (he rent of n dwelling may now rest with the Labour Department, and restriction of rent is now applicable to a furnished house lie well as to one that is unfu-nislied.