WAGES AND COST OF LIVING

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 148, 26 June 1916, Page 5

WAGES AND COST OF LIVING

BOARD OF TRADE'S VIEWS. LONDON, June 24. Mr. Harcourt, replying to a trade union deputation regarding State control of food prices and control oi wages, said the vicious system of Increasing wages, which resulted in increased prices and led to demands for further increases of wages, must he avoided. He could not allow the exploitation of individual advantages in war time. There had been a general advance of ten per cent, in wages, hut the actual increase In earnings, through regularity of work and cnertinie, probably worked out at nearer 40 per cent. According to the Foard of Trade, food prices had increased 4 9 per cent., but the cost ot living as a whole had not increased more than 4 0 per cent. The co» sensus of expert opinion was againsi fixing; maximum prices, which, could not increase the amount of commodities available, but would merely tend to divert foreign supplies to oil or markets. If the Food Com--mittee discovered that the public wer« being exploited bj prices being artificially Inflated, the Board of Trade would immediately act. ,

THE VERDUN STRUGGLE.

FRENCH GAIN GROUND,

GERMAN BABY-KILLERS AGAIN.

Received June 26, 5.45 a.m.

Paris, June 25

A communique states that our fire stopped the attacks on trenches on the slopes southward of Mort Homme, and a counter-attack restored us some portions of trenches to the westward of Thiaumont. We progressed at Fleury by means of grenades. German aeroplanes bombed Luneville, Baccarat and St Die, where seme children were wounded. The bombardments have been noted with, a view to reprisals. FORMATION BEING DISCUSSED. Received June 26, 8.45 p.m. London, June 25. There is much talk about the expediency of the formation of a League of Peace among the nations to enforce international right after the war. John Galsworthy emphasised the danger of German fires of vengeance smouldering in the event of their being crushed or merely forced back to their former boundaries. He said that we do not dare yet to hope for some social revolution bringing to Germany the blessings of democracy, hence there is the possibility of it remaining a soldier-ridden State and reorganising fcr future aggression. The proposed league presupposes that the machinery for arbitration will be of sufficient force to secure submission thereto.