COST OF LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 18, 20 January 1913, Page 7

COST OF LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND.

In the columns of the London ‘Chronicle’ the Hon. W. P. Reeves vigorously contests the conclusions reached by Air. J. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., on the findings of our Cost of Living Commission. Ho says taut the verdict of Mr. Macdona'd “amounts to holding up Now Zealand as 1 its policy during the last twenty year.; r so as a failure and a. warning to fae people of this country. Is rmch a verdict justified by the report? Have the

■.sincere efforts made since 1890 by fat Government and people of Non- Zealand to improve the so ial and m tori sil condition of their community mere lv resulted in following a vicious cir-

cle ending in dreary disappointmentP As I rend the report it proves nothing of the kind. To me it appears a clca —indeed, a striking—vindication, on

the whole, of the general results of the New Zealand effort for better conditions.”

The leading points of. the position are that about sixteen years ago a period of great prosperity set in in New Zealand, undoubtedly due to a remarkable and continued rise in the price of many articles produced in and exported from the colony. Following on this, however, has come a rise, though by no means an equivalent one, in the price of the articles imported, and also, of course, a rise in the cost of many things grown or manufactured in tiie colony and not exported. Therefore the cost of living has risen. There is nothing locally peculiar in tins; it has risen in almost every other country. You do not get anything for nothing in this world; even the Insurance Act only professor, to give ninepence for fourpence. The increased prices, while giving with one hand exceeding prosperity to New Zealand, take hack with the other a portion of the gift. The questions fairly to he asked are: hirst, have the Now Zealand community gained on tne balance, and have they retained all or most of their gain P Second, has the rise in the cost of living been greater or less there than in most other countries? Third, has the increased cost of living nullified in whole or great part the efforts of social reformers there foKhetter conditions? Fourth, is the lot of the people of New Zealand in 1912, and especially of the working classes there, depressing and disappointing, or is it, on the whole, om to Ije envied by workers elsewhere? Mr. Reeves declares emphatically in respect to the first point that the people of the Dominion have gained greatly, and have retained much the greater part of their gain. New Zealanders as Wage-earners.

To know that the rise in the cost or living in New Zealand is only about the same as that in the United Kingdom is interesting, because England has the advantage of Freetrade. Moreover, the rise in nominal wages in England in the last fifteen years has been very much less than in New Zealand. These points supply a very necessary corrective to Mr. Macdonald’s article. While on the subject ' f the comparison between the lot of the New Zealand wage-earners and that cf similar classes in other countries, it is material to observe that the report states that the proportion of the breadwinner’s wages required to feed a family in New Zealand is lowei than in any other • leading civilised country, except Australia. Not only is jjjixt so as a matter of percentage, but the actual / expenditure on food per head is also less than that of other country compared with the exception of Australia. All students of economics know how important tins is as a teist of well-being among the poorer''classes. Of the gains of these classes, 'one may point out, first, the substantial rise' in rfeal wages—a rise Mr.'llacdonald fairly admits. But this is by no means all. The high prices which have brought prosperity have also made an end of unemployment. During the so-called “cheap years before 1895 I had exceptional opportunity's of knowing the plight of the working classed of New Zealand. Unemployment Was rife, at times to a startling 'extent. People were leaving the country in thousands yearly, and large numbers of men, singly and in small groups, wei;e roving the country districts begging for work and food. So large has been the sum gained by the working. class through constant employment that I venture to say it must go very far to balance the amount paid by the class collectively in increased prices. Furthermore, prosperity and social reform have brought improvements in their condition in many ways. They have cheaper and extended communication through railways, much cheaper postage and telegraphs, a particularly cheap and widely-used telephone service, better tramways, better sanitation, better housing, far greater variety in recreation and amusements. Prosperity, with its higher public revenue, lias made possible old age pensions (10s per week at 65). a large workers’ housing scheme, and a land system which ,has enabled thousands of provident work people to become farmers and gardeners. In seventeen years the population of the Dominion has increased by 15 per cent. Yet this, so fan from lessening the standard of life, lias been accompanied by an extraordinary rise in it. In conclusion, I will only say that, so far from the report proving the condition of New Zealand to-day and its experience during the last twenty years, to be a record of warning and failure, I believe that history lias few, if any, pleasanter pictures of social and material well-being in a free and educated community than can be gathered from the document.