COST OF LIVING.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1922, Page 3

COST OF LIVING.

BONUS CUT OF ss. J REDUCTION BY ARBITRATION COURT. [by TELF.OIIA.rn —PEK PRESS association] j WANGANUI, April 5. I The Arbitration Court has made a I pronouncement on the cost of living for ! six months, ending .March 31, as affeetI ing the wages of workers under awards ! and industrial agreements, with the exception of a few industries, where ’ there are special circumstances.

1 The pronouncement is as follows : The Court, in pursuance of the provisions of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, 192122, las investigated tho movement in the cost of living between the six monthly period from April to September, 1920, and the six monthly period October, 1921, to March 1922. The rates of wages at present payable under the awards of the Court are based on the ascertained cost of living for the half-year ended September, 1920. The accumulated bonus, then declared, represented an increase of 15s per week oil the standard wage of March, 191!!. The actual amount ordered t<> he paid j was, however, 13s, a reduction of 2s j having been made, to balance a past I over-payment. The Court has, on this occasion, as in the past, covered the whole field of the cost of living. We particularly mention this matter, as an impression appears to lie current that the Court considers only the statistics relating to food, or to the food, rent and niel, and light groups. The Court adopts the official figures of the Government Statisj tieian in respect of these groups, and '.t j also obtains returns in respect of the price movements iti clothing, and. miscellaneous commodities, and services, for which no official statistics arc available. These are combined, with t.ieir proper weighting, with the official figures for other groups, so as to give the movement in the cost of living as a whole. It must be borne in mind tlmt all the statistics with which we are dealing, relate to retail prices. They i are an accurate index of t !- c movement fn the cost of living for so long only le the average family spends the same relative amount on each commodity listed In normal times domestic budgets vary from year to year, and the tendency is accentuated in times of abnormal and irregular fluctuations in prices. Sucii changes in the distribution of family ox peiuliture do not necessarily involve any alteration in the standard ol living, but they have the effect of rendering i-tail Drives statistics an appm.viimiri* instead of an exact, measure of the movement- of the cost of living.

| As the family cxpendittiu' budgets on j which the present sinlislies aie has.si | wore collected in 1912. they vanuol no" j It-- regarded as entirely stiii.-,ta<-tory j Food, rent, fuel and light uigether account for nearly 60 per cent of t e tata 1 expenditure of an average family. | Clothing, which includes personal cloth | ing, household linen, drapery and boots : and shoes, accounts for 13.8!) per cent. I and miscellaneous household requite ! menfs, medical, and other fees, train I and tram fares, newspapers, and period!- ! cals, and other items of a general na | mre make up the remaining 26.45 pc ' | cent. | As in the past, the Court has had to I base its information m regard to rib ■ | clothing group on the prices of a skeieI ton schedule o’ articles, which was reaj sonably representative of the whole I group, while the general prices were uniI iormly increasing. Latterly, this in-, formation had to be supplemented by estimates, owing to the unevenness of the movement in the prices of conimodi• lies within this group, whir l caused th ■ schedule to lose its representative ~c!:a meter.

We may Held, in passing, tnnt rapid changes in fashions and finalities have always made it impossible to construe, leliahle statistics of clothing prices, but wo have now adopted a senedule whies is representative and*woll balanced, and is sufficiently complete to obviate the neicssity for having recourse to esti mates, h covers 13 items ot men’s ami hoys’ overwear, six items of men’s and bays’ underwear, seven items of women’s and girls’ overwear, live items of women’s and girls’ underwear, lo itemof household drapery, and nine items ui footwear and repairs.

In regard to the miscellaneous expenditure group, the Court has felt for some time past that 20.-lo per cent n c the total expenditure of the family was too large an item to be covered by an estimate. We have obtained accurate data in regard to price movements of household furnishing, household ironmongery, brushwaro, sundries (.32 items) crockery, train and tram lares, and newspapers and periodicals, which, to gether, make up 13 per cent of domestic expenditure, thus leaving only 13.4 > per cent for which no d finite information is available. The items comprising' this portion of the .Miscellaneous Lroui) represent expenditure on insurance, medical, dental, and legal fees, subscriptions to lodges, clubs, religious bodies, charity, etc., sport, and recreation, and casual expenditure of various descriptions, that cannot he classified We have assumed that the movement in respect of the sub-group, is the average of the groups covered.

The adoption of improved methods for ascertaining the movements of prices in the clothing and miscellaneous groups, and the temporary tendency to steadying prices in certain lines, have caused the fall in the cost

of living to appear to he less than was generally anticipated. The new schedules have, however, enabled us to arrive at a reasonable accurate determination of the extent of the movement in the cost of living, in so far a.s. at all events, rental prices can he taken as an index of the cost of livin '.

Tn comparing the two half-yearly period's, April to September, 1.920, and October, 1921. to March.-1922. we find that the cost of living, measured in wages, has fallen to an extent that would reduce the accumulated bonus of 15s per week to 8s per week—that is, by 7» per week. As, however, 13s was paid instead of 15s, the actual reduction is 5s pei: week The Court has discriminated between adult males, adult females, and juniors in awarding past bonuses, and, if the same principle is followed in reducing wages, the amount pf reduction will lip. pa under

The Court in computing the past bonuses alterations, has used the sixmonthly figures for the purpose of comparison. Wo have made an alternative computation based on monthly figures. If the figures for March, 1922, are taken, instead of the six monthly moving average for the period October, 1921, to March, 1922, the reduction is greater by 2s per week in the case of adult males, and Is per week in the case of adult females and juniors. This pronouncement is in no sense a determination of whether, or to what extent.' wages are to be reduced. It is simply a statement of what the movement in the cost of living represents in wages. Tho Court will sit at Wellington on April 26th- to hear the representatives of the employers and workers, in regard to other considerations that should weigh with the Court in determining whether wages are to be reduced, and,' if so, by what amount.

WHAT PRONOUNCEMENT MEANS. , WANGANUI, April 5,

It is interesting to note, in connection with the Arbitration Court’s pronouncement. that the Act makes no distinction between bonuses and basic rates, so that any reduction will conic off the total rate of remuneration in each cade.

The pronouncement now issued is only a determination on the ascertainment of the movement in the cost of living, and has no legal effect in itself.

The Court has fixed April 26tli as the day when it will hear argument in regard to any proposed reduction in waves. and the general orders, for the reduction, finally decided upon, will not he made uiiil after the hearing.

Any general order made will not take effect until early in May.

Per Week. d. Adult males 5 0 Adult females 2 6 Juniors 1 6