THE COST OF LIVING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9795, 19 October 1917, Page 3

THE COST OF LIVING

To the Editor “N.Z. Times.”

Sir, —“Square Deal,’’ in your issue of the 16th insfc., raises au important question re tho “household budgets” issued by tho Government Statistician. Those budgets are valueless and misleading, unless one has the key to them.' It is doubtful if the said Statistician could say definitely what is the dietetic value of the said budget, or how many people it is capable of keeping in a state of industrial efficiency. For that reason I. enclose the key to the problem, so that he that runs mav read.

Mr Lloyd George, in his capacity of Minister for Munitions, sot up a committee, known as the “Health of Munition 'Workers’ Committee.’’ Amongst other questions dealt with by this committee was the question of a dietary scale, and they reported that physical fitness is dependent upon nutrition, upon which depends the quality, amount, and speed of the productive output. 111-paid labourers, whoso food only amounts to a bare minimum, cannot put forth the same energy, or work at the same speed as a wellnourished man. Numerous investigations show that a- man engaged in fairly light munition work requires about 3500 calories of food daily, whilst men engaged in hard, physical work, especially in the open-air, may consume 4500 calorics (food units) daily. Here we have for the first time an authoritative statement of the food requirements sufficient to secure industrial efficiency, and from the two classes quoted we may safely infer that for the average worker 4000 calorics should form the minimum daily average. For any further information wo are thrown back on the Science of Dietetics, of which Woods Hutchison, M.D., is perhaps tho moat able exponent.

Having fixed a standard for tho man., what is the standard for tho -woman and average child (one to fir-t-een rears of age)? If you take man as 100, woman as 55. and the average child as 65, you have as true a standard as it is possible to get, corresponding to the findings of the Munitions Committee.

The total calorics (or food units) in «he budget amount to 62,000 (slightly less). Allowing for a man 4000 per day, equals 23,000 per week; for a woman, 85 per cent., 23,800 per week; for a child, 65 per cent., 18,200 per week; total, 70,000; deficit, 8,000. Therefore, this budget can only provide enough food for a man, his wife and a child of four years of age. Based on the figures of the May budget (1917), the cost of 1000 caloric* was 4.8 W. *

Tho Munitions Committee also laid down this dictum, that tho foodstuffs consumed should be balanced in the following proportion: Protein 100. fat 100, carbohydrate 400. And in doing this, they completely shut tho door on cheap, shoddy substitutes, as being worthless for maintaining industrial efficiency. Further, the science of dietetics shows that .85 per cent, of the food consumed is entirely used in body building and performing bodily functions, leaving only 15 per cent, to he devoted to industrial energy. If then, tho food consumption be reduced by 30 per cent, or more, as has been the case since tho beginning of the war, it may bo readily seen to what a serious position the worker with a family is being driven. It means a complete

steppage ot " body-building, including repair nl waste tissue, ana if this is not sufficient to balance the shortage, further industrial energy 1 can only he obtained by the consumption of cell tissue, which not only causes degeneracy, but places the victim n complete prey to any and every disease that conies along. Judge Higgins enumerates the following items as having a right to find a place in the living wage-.—Rent, food, groceries other than .food, clothing and boots, replacement nf furniture, and 'utensils, provision for unemployment. union fees, hooks, stationery', newspapers, tram and train fares, school requisites, amusements and holidays. tobacco and liquor, provision for sickness and death, domestic help, nurse, confinements, religion or charitv. insurance.

Let any fair-minded man plaoo a sum opposite to each of these items, and then say whether the worker has not. a grave cause of complaint at the present, time. Judge Higgins says; "A man has a right to live from his labour, to live, considered as a human being, living in a civilised community. A wage that does not allow for the matrimonial conditions for an adult man, is not fair and reasonable, is not a living wage,” Cun we wonder at the present, industrial unrest, nndor such circumstances, and yet we are cursed with a trading community who arc wilfully depleting the efficiency of the worker, and a supino Government who lets them do it. And all that the worker can got from the Government is excuses and platitudes. They may make what excuses they may to man —but —what will they sarto God?.—l am .etc., W. MADDISON. Wellington, October 17th, 1917.