To Live on Threepence.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 24 April 1914, Page 8

To Live on Threepence.

FOOD EXPERT DID IT HIMSELF AND '<NEVER FELT BETTER."

MENU FOR MILLIONAIRES

"One can live on 3d. a day," says Mr. -F. J. Cross, who has just been speaking on food values and the cost of living before the council of the Charity Organisation Society. The cost of living had, he said, risen while wages and salaries had not risen in anything like the same proportion. Mr. Cross does not suggest a rise in wages. Merely to put up wages to 305.. a week would not solve the difficulty. The proper thing- to do is to make the best iise of what we have. There was once a man who fed his horse with splendid economy— but, Mr. Cross didn't refer to that tale —the man who experimented to maintain his horse on nothing a day and nearly succeeded. He doled out less and less till he came to one straw for the day. Unfortunately the animal died. And, Mr. Cross went on to show how a man could live on 3d. a day with comfort and be an efficient workman. He had tried it himself, he said, and never felt stronger or more vigorous—and this is a list of his week's supplies : Three loaves of bread ; 1 pint of milk ; lib of dates ; 2oz. of dripping ; £Ib of potatoes ; lib of oatmeal ; lib of haricot beans ; lib of rice ; soz. of margarine ; Alb of sugar. This, with tea, pepper, and salt, cost Is. Bd. "Being of a careful disposition," said Mr. Cross, "J did not spend all my money, and I had one penny left at the end of the week. I never enjoyed a week more and never felt better at the end of it." Mr. Cross told of a conversation he had with a .member of an association which is responsible for the training of hundreds of boys, and who said : "We believe in feeding our boys on roast beef and plum pudding.'l This kind of thing, Mr. Cross thought was due to the deeply-root-ed prejudice that roast beef and plum pudding are better than lentils and dates. It only shows the abyssmal ignorance of the general public about food values. The daily menus, which the lecturer contended a millionaire might envy, consisted of : Breakfast : porridge and milk, with toast and dripping, and hot water flavoured with milk. Lunch : beans, with margarine, bread-and-dripping, with dates, toast water, or plain water. Dinner : rice, with sugar and a dash of milk, with toast and margarine.