The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1831. THE COST OF LIVING.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1831. THE COST OF LIVING.

It is another indication of the distance to which the war has receded that the Statistics Office has taken a post-war period as a base for comparison of retail price movements. Hitherto cost of living comparisons have been based on the figures for 1909-13 or July, 1914, and generally the thoughts of the community ha.ve gone back to “before the war.” But the war is now nearly thirteen years old, and the Government- Statistician thinks “interest attaching to comparisons with the prewar period is lessening.” so he now provides, as “a more satisfactory background for the measurement of present and future price-movements.” a base formed of the period 1926-30. tt is not surprising that the Statistician has made this change. A generation is now growing up that knows nothing of the war from personal experience. consequently comparisons between present and pre-war costs of living convey little to it. Moreover, while the war effects the lives of all of us, and will continue to do so, we are far enough away .from it to value a comparison in which it is not directly concerned. It is really of more interest to know how the present cost of living compares with that of n few years ago than to know the difference between to day's figures and those of 1914. The Stati t-ician, however, wisely retains a 1914 base for purposes of comparison. The 1926-30 period, which is now being used as the principle base, is roughly th e period of our unemployment problem, and does not include the highest point reached

after the war by the cost of living. The index number for the three Hod groups in July was 17.1 per cent, lower than the average for 1926-30, and the fall since July of 1930 was 15.2. per cent. Figures for all categories of goods, taken in February, May and July, show a fall of 9 per cent, from the new base. That is to say, the general fall in the cost of living is roughly equal to the recent reduction in wages, though such a comparison does not take unemployment into recount. Every effort must' be made to reduce the cost of living still further.