The Taihape Daily Times WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1915. THE COST OF LIVING.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 105, 6 January 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1915. THE COST OF LIVING.

and waimari.no advocate. .With which is im-oporated The Taihapo Post i.i U 'Waimarino News.)

A present-day economist has said that it is a first necessity of existence that people should ho able to buy and sell under nan* conditions in any market. Any manipulation of a market by which producers were compelled to sell cheaply and buy dearly constituted a capital crime against the race. With bold dictum like this in mind, together until the ever-increasing cost of necessaries of life, one is Jed to ask who, it. is that is compelled to sell cheaply and buy deariy, and who it is that is guilty of a capital crime against the race. We h r e been told by the lion. Thomas Mackenzie-that, in consequence of the war. 'New Zealand would not suffer cither financialy or commercial;/, at least, not to the extent that wou|d affect her detrimentaly. The chief reason he gives is that New Zealand produces more than she requires, leaving a large surplus for export; and he further adds: ‘'Although we .have no desire to profit by the war, one notes that on the demand now existing for such articles as, wool, frozen meat, butter and cheese, there is a marked advance in price.” Last year our agricultural exports amounted to £19,250,000; this year they have ‘ been assessed at nearly £24,000,000. By this, noth withstanding the war, we see that N‘ew Zealand has made some £4,000,000 more profit on this year’s workings than it made last year when there was no war. Who gets this £4,000,000 additional profit? We arc told that New Zealand will not suffer' financially and commercially; it would seem euphemistic 'logic? 'to urge that with such .art immense amount of extra profit; with such a splendid year’s business' everybody must share in the good time, but wo find such logic is bad in practice, for wc discover on the most superficial examination that it is only a very small minority that participates, while the masses are very much worse off than they ever were in previous years. Not only does this small minority pocket the £4,000,000 extra profits, but it also clamours for higher prices, and still higher prices for the necessities of life it sells,to those who worked for them,, and helped them to their particular good fortune. The labouring man still gets the same ’wages; the clerk still receives his two pounds a week, while the cost of his living has increased by,some 30 per cent., and is still being forced up by the fortunate, though selfish, minority. While there are such flagran? instances of the rich becoming more rich and the poor being made poorer:.hs fit. to' To wondered at: that meir :rush to'socialism, ov ■ even worse, in an endeavour to find some escape from this squeezing and grinding do wn process. The spending power, at least, the effective spending power of the masses has been decreased with the result that many shopkeepers throughout the Dominion have had to relinguish business Mr, Mackenzie said that while he deplored this dreadful war and all the suffering it entails it would do the Empire an eiiormov • amount of good; “we sadly require 'hardening tip and this wa; : would do it.” Unfortunately, if k the lucky minority who 'gets

the 4m vomit--of-good, while the masses, who arc already pretty hard-up, yet the hardening up. YVe are told that the extra £4,000,000, or so, we make this year will very nearly all be spent on the war. Nothing of llup kind, and the speaker, did not mean that; he meant that New Zealand' would spend a similar amount. We find on examination that the poor are to be made still poorer, for although they have no share in the £4,000,000 they have got to pay the greater part of the similar amount to be spent on the war, through increases of the customs. If the economist’s words, above quoted, never had previous application, surely we have an ideal case for their application now. The masses arc made to sell then- labour as cheap, in some instances cheapo]', as previously, while they are compelled, to buy mu eh more dearly.' ifth is does not constitute a capital mime agattrst tin- race we have no more Tise , for ceonpiuisis and their pretiyssoiuiding dictum. Is-it not true that there were ever those ■ who did not scruple to get' rich in war-rinm, regardless of the height their action piled up the heaps.oi their dead countrymen. There is ,a class that has been openly accused of miserliness and .unpatriotic eTort to raise prices of necessaries of life without reasonable cause. AYe grow the food here in New Zealand and pay freight and other, charges to England, an i 'yet this very food is sold nuieii cheaper in Eng I ami than it is hwe; living at, the present time is cheaper in Great Britain than in New Zealand, notwithstanding tout Britain is in the war zone while production here is flourishing bettor than it has ever done. The very fact that foodstuffs arc sold at a less price in Britain than they can be purchased for hero absolves the grower from blame, for he has evidently parted with, his products to shippers and dealers at a price that admits of large profits being made even at the English prices. There are bodies of ea'llons-hearted men in Australasia who are anring, only too'snecessfully, the syndicates, trusm, combines, and even the graft of America. The poorer sections of the coniinerury, having little money, to contribute towards the very existence of our Empire, are sacrificing their husbands, father,s, sons and brothers, and while they are fighting for our right to i.ve, there arc combinations of capital hero that are persisting in a /v-urse that will operate ,’n depriving t ie inodn-ivs, wives, daughters and sisters they have left behind of the very necessities of life. Prices of necessities have been regulated, by legislation at Home and elsewhere, but here combinations of capital are too strong even for the- Government, whose efforts in the desired direction have proved a miserablefiasco. Did the. Hon. Mr. Mackenzie- come anywhere near the truth when he told Londoners that we had no desire to profit by flicwar? If the immoral raising of prices of necessities by those people does not constitute a capital crime against the race, then the .economist’s words have no application. A