THE Kaipara Advertiser, AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1912.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 5 June 1912, Page 2

THE Kaipara Advertiser, AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1912.

A ROYAL COMMISSION FARCE. The setting up 01 a Royal Commission at this late stage in the record of events^for the purpose of pfufyifig jthe cause appertaining to the igxzf&a.s.ed post of Jiving in this Dominion should $ra#!s.pire to be of the most fareefui order. In short, the whole affair is preposterous ; a fiasco of the first water, and a ludicrous an-

achronism. Moreover, the reason is not far to seek. For many years our exports in the form of produce, i.e., food-stuffs, etc., have been largely on the increase, and even a cursory glance at statistics will prove this to be the case. In the frenzified competition to vie with, and meet the exorbitant demands of a keen market at Home and elsewhere, the actual consumers in New Zealand have been literally forced to bear the brunt of the additional expense of the dire necessities of life. That the cost of living has increased during the past twenty years, and especially within the last ten years, is an admitted fact. Take another aspect. This increased cost may in a certain degree be due to persistent labour legislation ; also to the higher standard of living, which results in the export of food-stuffs to pay for luxuries, so reducing the supply of food for local consumption. From 1906 to 1910, inclusive, there were imported at a cost of over £7,000, 000, automobiles and motor cycles £998,000; bicycles and fittings, £920,000; wine, spirits, beer, tobacco, etc., £4,500,000; fancy goods and toys, £1,066,000 ; musical instruments, £638,000. In twenty years the Dominion's debt has been increased by £40,000,000 of which only £6,000,000 is represented by imported specie. Further, the increases in the cost of living have been most marked in rent, 25 to 50 per cent; food, 25 to 35 per cent; clothing (tailor-made) 15 to 20 per cent; while household necessaries have increased in proportion to the extra cost of labour required to produce them. As a natural outcome, the hardworking man, who has to toil in the face of great difficulties, and pay his way at all hazard; has of recent years awakened to the verity that the whole trouble is really due to an aggressive monopoly of money-grabbing vulgarities ! Again, if handicapped by a wife and family, the average individual finds that he cannot even so much as eke out a frugal existence, but has to be content by clinging on to the end of the planet. From beginning to end, we consider, sans peur and sans reproche, that the present state of affairs is a standing disgrace, and the question of the increased cost of living is one that should have been inquired into long ago, thus nipping a serious matter in the bud.