CONDITIONS IN OLD DAYS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22341, 28 May 1947, Page 4

CONDITIONS IN OLD DAYS

Sir. —Your correspondent “Girlie” referred last week to my remarks about the old days and asked if it would be possible to find out the prices for rent and commodities. The following is a list of the prices in 1902 which I have prepared with the assistance of a gentleman who was in business at that time: Rent of four rooms from 6s to 7s per week, average about Is Gd per room; butler from lOd to Is per lb; bacon, 9d per lb; eggs, 8d a dozen; sultanas, 9dla l'o; candles, 8d a packet; tea, 2s a lb; sugar, 401 b bag, 8s 6d; matches, 6d per packet; tobacco, Is per plug with box of matches; milk, 3d quart; sausages, 3d. a lb; steak, 4d and 5d lb; roast beef, 4d lb; biscuits, 9d lb; boots, from 4s Gd pair; potatoes, 1941 b sack, 8s 9d: maize, 2s 9d bag; clothes, tailor-made, £4 10s; sacks, from Is to Is Gd; shifts, from 3s Gd; sago, 3d lb; cornflour, 8d lb. All varieties of fruit were delivered at your door at Id per lb. Vegetables could be bought for next to nothing. The Kaiti works, incidentally, were founded by a well-known Gisborne business man in the person of Mr. F. J. Shelton in 1896, of the firm of Common. Shelton and Co., Ltd. In my report I forgot to mention that Mr. John Rees Jones, who was second engineer employed by Messrs. Nelson Bros., resigned and took over as works manager and chief engineer for Mr. Shelton. Mr. Jones resigned in 1920. Further information about wages is as follows: Wages paid in Poverty Bay away back in 1877 were recorded m a return to the Colonial Secretary thus: Artisans: Sawyers. 6s per 100; bricklayers, 10s per day (eight hours); carpenters, 10s per day: painters. 9s per day; smiths, 10s per day; wheelwrights, 10s per day; shepherds, £65 to £7O per annum; stockmen and bullock-drivers, 20s per week and found: shearers, 2us per 100; cooks, 20s per week. Dojnestic servants: Cook, 30s (female) 15s per week; grooms and footmen, 30s per week; gardeners, 8s per day: house servants (female), 12s per week. •A. W. ELLIOTT.