The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1913. THE COST OF LIVING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 100, 1 September 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1913. THE COST OF LIVING.

' During recent years the rise in the cost of living in every civilised country has been marked, and apparently that rise is going steadily forward, this has been advanced as a reason for increased wages, and apparently accepted as a good reason, because in the large majority of cases the Arbitration Courts have seen lit to accept it and grant increases. Naturally the cost of production in all industrial businesses has increased in sympathy, and in at least some instances, this extra cost of production is placed upon the shoulders of the consumer. It is certainly questionable , whether the artisan is better oil' to-dy: than he was a few years ago, and it is undoubted that most of those engaged in clerical or semi-professional callings are a good deal worse off Allan they were. The British Board of I trade has computed that the purchas|ing power ol the sovereign has dejereased in twenty years by 2s 2d, and fliiiS to a wage-earner is a serious mat|ter. Iho decrease In purchasing power | m .Now Zealand i.s probably just as (great as in {treat Britain. Dr. Clriee. |a writer of note on linanco and eeo-

)nomic-s, 1 1 ar> stated that, taking the ( prices of ]B9l-1895 as the basis those ,ol' the United Kingdom had by It)] 1 - 12 gone np 20 per cent.. Belgium shows |an advance of 27 per cent.. Germany j i‘lß per cent., France 2-1 per cent.. Can-' jada 28 per cent., the United States' 1 20 per cent.. Now Zealand G per cent., land Australia 28 per cent. Thes -' I figures refer to the relative increases |in wholesale prices. Speaking at the: Canterbury Chamber of Commerce the other day, the retiring President (Mr P. Hill Fisher) quoted those', figures, and went on to say that the . actual retail prices of the various’

articles in common use, and included in the returns were, of course, quite another thing. Taking the average for the fourteen commonest and most important articles of food, and including coal and petroleum for heating and lighting purposes, the relative index numbers were:—Australia (1000), flreact Britain (890), Belgium (932), Denm ark (992), France (NIC). Holland (1.353), Germany (1158), Canada (1075), Foiled States ((1161), and Xow Zealand (991). From these figures—hut remembering that other

things must bo taken into account—j it would appear that the United Kingdom was the cheapest country, Belgium, Now Zealand and Denmark next, Australia and Canada occupied the middle position, while Germany, the United States, and France were the most expensive. Fisher went] on to show that the main outcome of] the report as a whole was a further confirmation of the world-wide charac—ior of the upward trend in prices, which had'taken place during • nearly two decades and which still continued. | and asked: How long was this advancing movement likely to lie maintained t Professor Irving Fisher, of New York, a persistent advocate of an. International Commission *of Enquiry into the causes of the rise in prices, a year ago said:—“Prices will continue to rise for another generation at least”—not continuously, hut on an average at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum. Professor Segar, who was a chief witness before the New Zealand Commission last June, was of a similar opinion. “The probability seems to be,” he had said, “that the rise in prices will continue for some ten or fifteen rears. . . . Con-

siderable as has been the rise in prices, we certainly have not yet come to the turning point. We arc still in the midst of an era of rapid-ly-rising prices, although wo are already confronted with an increase as great as the whole of that which followed the great Californian and Australian discoveries of gold.” On the other hand, Professor W. J. Ashley, of 'Birmingham University, anticipated that:—“The present upward movement would soon come to an end; then prices will for some time remain on the same level, and, sooner or later, the downward march of prices will again be resumed.” Mr Fisher considers that the rapid opening up of new areas of supply, and the enormous expansion of Australia and other portions of the. Empire, might eventually prove the last forecast to be correct. There is at least some, comfort in this conclusion.