COST OF LIVING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10608, 5 June 1920, Page 11

COST OF LIVING

PROTEST BY C3TIZENS "DUE TO CONDITIONS CONTROLLED BY GOVERNMENT/' RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT PUBLIC MEETING. Resolutions urging upon- tho Government the necessity of passing certain legislation as a means of reducing tho cost of liviiijf wero adopted at a public meeting', which was convened at tho Town Hall last night by the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association and the Women's National Council. There wero about 1400 citizens present. Mr W. Perry, president of the Rettrra'«t Soldiers' Association, outlined thw objects of the meeting. Certain resolutions would be submitted to them tor their approval, and he hoped they would pass them .with no uncertain voice. It was urgently necessary that the Government be pressed to do something to bring down tho present abnormal cost of living, and in the resolutions to be submitted would be found suggestions whereby it was. considered tho objective of the gathering would be gained. A SUGGESTED WAY OUT.

Professor T. A. Hunter said he counted it a privilege to have been asked to take port. He considered it was creditable neither to the authorities nor the people of the - Dominion that the men v ho went away to fight should come back and have to struggle for a bare existence. Therefore, he had much pleasure in .coving the following resolution: — "That this public meeting, called by the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association, believes that the intolerable increase in the cost of living is largely due to conditions that oan be controlled by the Government, and this meeting, therefore, calls on Cabinet and Parliament to take immediate steps:—(l) To reduce the paper currency; (2) to impose a levy on all war profits; (3) to grant by legislation the right to duly appointed officers to inspect invoices and the books of rny trader so as to secure the Immediate detection of anv profiteering. THE FALLING SOVEREIGN.

-• The increase in the oost of living was a solid fact, he said. We all knew it, and we-were faced'with the problem of discovering, the cause. The principal reocon wan the overissue of paper currency.- That was a very real causeEconomists had found that fast as the prices of commodities varied 60 also did the value of the sovereign. During the period from WOO to 1919 the value of the sovereign had fallen—according to the Government statistician—to 12b 3d, but as enly three food groups had been taken in arriving at that estimate, he. the speaker, considered that it had fallen. In value to 10s. To meet tho trouble economists had worked out a system which was known as the index number. Details of this had recently been explained through the Preis. In his opinion, if a man's wages had not been raised in proportion to the increased cost. of living and it had nofcr-then he was being robbei of portion of his wages. The responsibility rested; on the .Government, and the Government alone. The country had been deluged with paper currency, and the Treasury was guaranteeing that currency to the banks. In this community wo were blowing a bubble, and the bigger it was blown the greater would be the burst. - It was tp to the Government to deflate the currency. After the boom would eoine the smash- By the resolution they were asking the Government to mitigate the smash, because .the mass ot the people would suffer. ''••■' PREMIER AND THE CURRENCY. All authorities stressed the fact that to bring down, the cost of .living wo must deflate the currency, and that could only be done by reducing the ipaper currency The Prime. Minister was reported the other day as stating that the Government could not reduce the paper currency. He thought there must be some mistake. The Premier was not so foolish surely- If that was his opinion, then we should have another Government. It seemed as though we had given up fighting our enemy overseas only to tackle a greater enemy within our borders. If the Government were not strong enough, or patriotic enough, to take hold of this problem then the people of the Dominion ahouM rise up and 89e to it that another Government was placed in office. He had much pleasure in moving the resolution. TAX WAR PROFITS. - In seconding the motion, Mr A. A. Tocker, M.A.. a returned soldier, addrjs» ed himself to the second and- third clauses. A levy on war profits was practicable, he said. In this country a number of people had made enormous profits at the expense of the mass of tto people. The man who had made money out of the war—more than anyone elsewas the big farmer. It would be possible, right, for the Government to go to the big farmer and say:—"lf we had tost the war your land would have been worth nothing. We won the war, and as a result your land is doubled in value. Therefore, w« propose to late half of your land, or half of its value, whioh represents its. increment due to the war.". (Applause.) If it were right to conscript the country's manhood it was iust as right now to conscript the country's war won wealth. During the last few months the Profiteering Board had found two cases of profiteering. One was in respect "of an alarm and the other of Mellins food! There had been an insignificant worrying* of small retailers, and no attempt to find out the reason for the great increase in prices. Monopolies existed in this country, and we should know to what extent they were resonaible for the shortage of supplies and the increase ih prices. The resolution aimed at the detection of profiteering. If there, was no profiteering then jthere sTiould be no fear of an investigation. If there was profiteering it ehould be exposed re-lentlessly,-and the guilty punished, for it was this vampire of profiteering that was sapping the life-blood of the country.

The resolution was carried, unanimously. SERIES OF SUGGESTIONS. "That in order to reduce the high co*t of living, this meeting of Wellington citizens calls on the Government i—"I. (a) To control drastically the profit* of all large businesses and industries by fixing, a. standard rate, of interest in «*ch class of business and industry. "(b) To reduce Custom* on the necessities- of life and to increase Customs of certain industries, thereby restricting importation. (c) To cheapen, by means of an export tax and a controlled price, the cost of butter and meat. "(d) To control eo as to lower the price of wool, and to place an export tax on wool. 11. To abolish the income tax on companies manufacturing rieceasarie* of life, taking steps to see that goods are reduced accordingly. 111. That a yearly bonus of at least £lO for each child be paid by the State to families whose Income is under £250."

It calls on the Wellington City Council to establish well-organised municipal markets for fish, fruit, vegetables, etc.. and use tho revenue from the Royal Oak site for tho purpose. A "LUXURIES CAMPAIGN."

Miss N. B. Oad, M.A., president of tho Women's National Council, said that I sho wm going to speak of tho high cost.-!

of living because it affected the women mostly. One of the causes was our national debt. 'She Government had been brrrowin/ heavily tor ™P™?»otw« wnrltn The Hon. D. H. Guthrie lelintly mado'a"Statement that M*™* 'very prosperous country. That was a very opportune statement. &ho «£«» suggest to the Minister that heavy-taxes should b» Placed «m the "wtjPMg ous > people of the very prosperous countrShe wanted to say a few words about this "luxuries campaign" that v, as goin- on. The Government was trying to draw a big odoriferous red Erring across the scent. Why, the. women of the Dominion had been dome T 7 ltoonl nTl luxuries all their lives. It was an in,ult to the women. True, somc-a ie« did spend money on luxuries, but wny Idil not the Government, prohibt tho importation of these luxuries by the imposition of a heavy tax? "REVOLUTIONARY" PROPOSAL. Referring to the portion of the resolutun dealing with .the proposedi export tax on butter and meat, Mi» Goad «ua that it had beem termed reyolutaoi ar> ; Tho Board of Trade had said to hei . "Why. if that were done there JonM be a revolution in New Zealand, if we did not got high prices for our butter and meat we could not pay our national debt." Slue then suggested, that an export tax of 2d should be levied, but that did not meet with thoir appro? al. ine export of wool should be prohibited All woollen goods should be manufactured in New Zealand. Cheaper olothing then. It had been stated that there was no profiteering. If that; were so tnerewas something radically wrong in the metnou of distribution from the manufacturer to the consumer. Maybe, a line passed through the hands of the Many middlemen, each of whom made a reasonable profit, but if that were, the cause ot the trouble it was up to the Government to effect a remedy. The establishment ot municipal markets was necessary, ana thev could be made a payable proposition. She had the authority of the Mayor of Auckland for that statement. The Royal Oak site was vested in tne oity for municipal markets, and atehouia be made use of. Much had been written of a white New Zealand,, but tne heathen Chinese was creeping .in everywhere, and at present ho practically controlled the fruit trado of the Dominion. If the City Council established a municipal market it would be a means of partially dealing with the menace. . High prices were a verv real social and political danger in New Zealand. CLAIMS OF FAMILIES. "Increased production will not. solve the problem," said Mr Arthur Fair. It would 'be all very well, in time, ii world-wide and universal, but at present we wanted somo other solution, ii* was particularly concerned about the married man with a family. Of all the people in the Dominion, the marwed man was the most deserving and the worst treated. He received no consideration from tho State. ■Admittedly, he was exempt from income tax if in receipt of less- than £3OO per year, but it was only, a visionary remission because it was taken away-by other taxation, A grant of £lO for each child in' thefamily would only be an inadequate recognition of what was due to the married man. He had much pleasure m seconding the l motion. Adopted unanimously. "CHILD ENDOWMENT FUND." The suggestion of a bonus fpr children was endorsed by Colonel Mitohell,. M.P. for Wellington South, but he did not think it went far enough. He expressed the hope that during the next session ot Parliament there would be placed on the statute book a "Child Endowment Act," from whioh -women receive Is per day for each ohild until it attained a certain age. "A ORISIS."

"I believe a crisis has arrived in ths history of New Zealand," said Mr A. U. Sievwright, in moving: "That we call upon the Government : (1) To create a temporary portfolio for housing; (2) switch all State and private building energies to provide homes for tho people; (3) to vigorously stop aggregation in land, to have a revaluation ot the occupied land in New Zealand, an increase in the land tax; (4) open up ©very available acre of suitable Crown and native land under group system; (5) to tabulate the whole estates in the country suitable I for cutting up, and acquire them compulsorily where need, for settlement; (6) Ito stop all speculative trafficking m land." , ■ . In speaking to the -resolution, Mr Sievwright lexprossed the "opinion that I the whole cause of the increased cost or living could be found in the . land trouble. While the men were fighting at the front the Government had allowed land aggregation to go on at an alarming rate, just as it had failed to attempt to grapple'with the problem that had brought them there to-night. ' It was out to protect the big man, as wa» dearly proved when it removed the embargo on the exportation of hides. While the restriction was in force, hides were hoarded, and later they were sold to such good purpose that about six men in the Dominion had .mado a profit of nearly half a million sterling. He challenged the. Government to set up a Royal 'Commission to investigate the hoarding of these hides and the enormous profits made by a few individuals. THE HOUSING PROBLEM. "It you are going to have a contented community you have got to give it a decent roof over its head," said Colonel Mitchell. No effort had been made to deal with the housing problem, and as a result there was a shortage of between 1400 and 1600 houses in Wellington, a I'd 20,000 in the Dominion. Consequently values had become inflated, and there had been more profiteering in respect of tenements than anything else .in the Dominion. That tho Government had not realised how serious was the problem, was evidenced in the weak, puny scheme it was tinkering with. The time had arrived for, the appointment of . a real live Housing Minister to cope with tho situation. If something were not done in the near future trouble, serious trouble, would ensue. "I am a "oyal man," be said, "but if I had to live in i=ome of tho awful hovels in Wellington I would be a Bolshevik within a week.'' PROFITEERING BY LABOUR.

, Profiteering was rampant, but It •» as not onlv the wealthy man who was profiteering. So also was the worker. There wan a deficiency of efficiency on tho fe-rt of the worker. It took 25 per cent, longer timi> to build n house to-day than in 1913. Labour was ever crying out fotr more wages, less hours of work, and a reduotion in the cost of living. They were not right in the head. Increases nover hit an employer, because thi'.v were always passed on. .He o-pnoaled to Labour to strive for national efficiency. The resolution was carried, and the Returned Soldiers" Association was' empowered to place all the proposals before the Government, and* to keep on striving until such time as they were put >nto effect.