WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Correspondent) THE COST OF LIVING. STILL RISING.

WELLINGTON, November ,4

The announcement in the local newspapers tliis morning of a further rise of a half-penny per gallon in the pile.; of milk has set- Wellington people who are not directly interested in trading

aud shop-keeping talking afresh of the persistent rise in the cost* of living. The latest impost, it is nnderstod is to cover the cost of a new system of inspection which the City Council has devised after many weeks and many months and years of futile discussion, and if the inspection effects its purpose the consumers, no doubt, will speedily reconcile themselves am? their purses the additional tax. But Wellington people have been so long the special and conspicuous victims of the grasping landlord and the exploiting trader and shop-keeper that they well may he pardoned for a passing grumble.

'WELLE! TON" S' B I'B DEN. Already milk is substantiality dearer in Wellington than it is in any of the other large centres of population. In Auckland according to the latestofficial figures available, the price is .kl. a quart, in Christchurch 4d. and in Dunedin -kl., while in Wellington it is 5Jd. There may be some excuse in the cost of carriage and difficulty of (distribution for the high price in the capital city, hut surely the local authority might have borne the expense of inspection without passing it on to the consumer. And milk is not the only ‘•necessary” for which the Wellington housewife haft to pay an outrageous price. Bread, per 2 111. loaf, is oil. in Auckland •IJd. in Christchurch, 4d. in Dunedin and 5Jd in Wellington, while gas, either for lighting or cooking, is ■">/- per 1000 cubic feet in Auckland, Oil Christchurch, 5/- in Dunedin and 7/0 in Wellington. There arc scores of other articles showing the same disparity, always In the disadvantage of Tin* Wellilngton consumer. . A CITY OF SHOPKEEPERS.

The Wellington traders ami shopkeepers arc doing so well out of the war, owing to the enormous amount of additional trade brought- to them by the soldiers in camp and their friends and relatives visiting the city, to say nothing of the supplies to the transports, that- they seoni able to ignore the needs of their ordinary customers with impunity. Groceries which were considerably cheaper in Wellington before the war than they were in Christchurch ar P now fully 10 per cent dearer and cost more here than they do in such pro. vineial towns as Hamilton, Taihape, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Blenheim, Greymouth, Timar.u Oaiiiarii and Invercargill. As ctompnrod with the average prices during the live years before the war grocers have advanced in Auckland by 2S

per cent, in Christchurch by 28 per cent-, and in Dunedin by 25 per cent, while in Wellington they have advanced hv 89 percent. A FREE HAND.

Mr. T. M. Wilford quoted the hulk of these figures lin one of his speeches during the dying hours of the session, but the Government seems quite content that the traders and shop-keepers should go oil their exploiting way without any hindrance from those in authority.

The Board of Trade has reported upon the matter more than once, and, of course, the Government has power under the legislation of three yoar s ago to call upon the sellers to justify the advances they have made upon the standard prices fixed by that legislation, hut so far it appears to have done nothing towards obtaining relief for the consumers.

The truth probably lies in the fact that the municipal government of the capita] city is the most timid and ineffective in the whole Dominion and while it makes no protest against the existing state of affairs, Ministers are not eager to bring a hornet’s nest of vested interests about their own ears.