Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 9016, 2 December 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE increasing cost of living is compelling attention to the study of the problem of how to live within income. A lady contributor to an American magazine says it depend* on the force of one’s moral nature-- j on the ability to sacrifice PCMonal desires to fixed principles defined by ] the relation of available fouds to tho | cost of what is wanted. She thinks . it is almost entirely a woman a I question, and supports this view y quoting the result of a oi i fiin rmivicts in & Western , . prison, 69 per cent of whom stated that they were led to commit crime by the extravagance of their ives. She says that her own experience as a housewife lias taught hert.iat i one-half the miseries of married life and most of its sorrows might ho averted by women acquiring a sense of moral accountability to business law in the marriage relation, i- ox that reason she addresses herseltpaiticularly to her own sex, advising each, befoie marrying to consider whether her prospective hilshaue s income is mathematically reducible to dollars sufficient to siistam a family of five; in other woicis, whether ho is able to decently keep her and the family which may be> exneeted As to the science hearing on the question of living within one s income, her experience is that kinu souls bent on enlightening the sex tell her too much of that which embarrasses her and not enough ol what she really needs. She is stuffed libs ■ a goose tor Christmas with the ‘ science of nutrition, of sanitation, of hygiene, .but of the science of political economy as it bears on th° homo and family no one tells hex anything. Proceeding, she lays down, for the assistance of women -1 who have the disposition, bu. the intelligence, necessary to witiiiu their husband’s income an economic law bearing on the proportional expense ot living.. It contains four distinct propositions m That the greater the income tnc smaller the relative percentage or outlaw for subsistence ; (2) that the uercentacc of outlay on clothing approximately the same whatever the income; (8) that the percentage of outlay for lodging or rent and toi fuel and light is invariably the same; and (4) that as the income increases in amount the percentage ot oat'mv for sundries becomes greater, quotes -statistics of the United Department of Labour, showing that the average income is 1200 dollars, or about £240, and of this the fuel takes 190 per cent; lighting 1 per cent; clothing 1a. 26 percent; food 43.25 per cent; and all other purposes 33.13 per cent, exclud - ing househonld assistance. oh® therefore argues that rental should not take more than 25 to 30 per cent, the table 40 to 50 per cent, and dress not exceed 15 per cent. It seenis to the writer we have quoted that one result of the so-called '‘.higher ' education of her sex has been to develop their intellects at the expense of their understanding. While they are absorbed in the principles ot many sciences, the particulars ot mere living are ignored; and tor women to apply their reason and their will to the hard fact of ti.c money problem is to reclaim many a man from much evil, and altogether to increase the wealth of society and improve its moral tone.

THE question of reading is an all engrossing one to country settlers, and for many years has been inextricably mixed with politics. The candidate who has most knowledge of the requirements of a distret in the matter of roads, and who is most persistent in urging its claims on Ministers, is the man. who is. most likely to secure the vote of the country settler. To say that this is an unsatisfactory state of affairs is a mere commonplace, but hitherto no one lias arisen who has made a real effort to take the question of reading out of politics and treat it in a businesslike manner. There is nothing mysterious about the problem of reading. When a syndicate purchases an estate and cuts it up for settlement there is no, difficulty in dividing it into sections of suitable area and providing the roads necessary to give access,. In many cases ‘ the roads are metalled before the sections are offered,_ while where tiie roads are only formed buyers know that the syndicate takes no'further responsibility. The Now Zealand Government, however, seems quite incapable of dealing with laud in this way. In dozens of cases blocks are cut up into sections so small that far more roads arc required to give access than the land can possibly boar. Tho desire for close settlement, it would_ appear, is the chief cause of this action, but it is obviously absurd to cut up land into 200 or '3OO aero sections when the cost of reading would raiso tho price of tho land so high that no one would buy it. Under the present system, with roads existing only_.cn paper when tho laud is dealt with, there is little check to this evil, but if roads wore formed before blocks were opened more practical methods would be adopted and tho necessity of restricting reading within profitable limits would act as a guide to surveyors in cutting up blocks. The formation of a dray road of full width in tho first case would also ho far more economical than __ the present system of constructing first a three foot track and afterwards widening, regrading, and culvortiug afresh for a full width road. The country needs a man like Carnegie or Pierpout Morgan at the_ head of affairs, with a free'haud in settlement matters. Things wonid thou be carried on in a businesslike way, and tho opening up of the country would go on with all the smoothness of a well-managed commercial undertaking.