WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 November 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE COST OF LIVING.

STILL RISING,

(Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 14. The announcement in the local newspapers this morning of a further rise of a half-penny per gallon in the price of milk has set Wellington people' who are not directly interested in trading and shop-keeping talking afresh of the persistent rise in the cost of living. This latest impost, it is understood, is ’to cover the cost of a new system of inspection which the City Council has . devised after many weeks and months and years of futile discussion and if the inspection effects its purpose the consumers, no doubt, will speedily reconcile and *,thcir purses to the additional tax. But Wellington people have so long been the special and conspicuous victims of the grasping landlord and the exploiting trader and shop-keeper that they well may be pardoned for a passing grumble. WELLINGTON ’S BURDEN. Already milk is substantially dearer in Wellington than it is in any of the other large centres of population. In Auckland, according to the latest official figures available, the price is 5d a quart, in Christchurch 4d and in Dunedin sd, while in Wellington it is sid. There may be some excuse in the cost of carriage and the difficulty of distribution for the high price in the capital city, but surely the local authority might have borne the expense of inspection without passing it on to the consumer. And milk is not the only “necessary” for which the Wellington housewife has to pay an outrageous price. Bread, per 21b. loaf, is sd, in Auckland, 4jd. in Christchurch, 4d, in Dunedin and old in Wellington while gas, either for lighting or cooking, is 5s per 1000 cubic feet in Auckj land, 6s 3d in Christchurch, os in 1 Dunedin and 7s 6d in Wellington. There are scores of other articles showing the same disparity, always to the disadvantage of the Wellington consumer. A CITY OF SHOPKEEPERS. The Wellington traders and shopkeepers are doing so well out of the war, owing to the enormous amount of additional trade brought to them by the soldiers in camp and their friends and relatives visiting the city, to say nothing of the supplies to the transports that they seem able to ignore the needs of their ordinary customers with impunity. Groceries which were considerably cheaper l in Wellington, before the war than they were in Christchurch are now fully 10 per cent, dearer and cost more here than they do in such provincial towns as Hamilton, Taihape, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmci>ston North, Blenheim, Greyraouth, TTmraru, Oamaru, and Invercargill. As compared with years before the war groceries have advanced in Auckland by 28 per cent.; in Christchurch by 28 per cent and in Dunedin by 25 per cent., while in Wellington they have adanveed 39 per cent. A FREE HAND. Mr. T. M. Wilford quoted the bulk of these figures in one of his speeches during the dying hours of the session, but the Government seems quite content that the traders and shop-kcepe® should go on their exploiting way withou any hindrance from those in authority. The Board of Trade has reported upon the matter more than once and, of course, the Government has power under the legislation of three years ago to call upon the sellers to justify the advances they have made upon the standard prices fixed by that legislation, but so far it appears to have done nothing towards obtaining relief for the consumers. The truth {probably lies in the fact [that {the municipal government, of the capital city is the most timid and ineffective in the whole Dominion and while' it makes no protest against the existing state of affairs Ministers are not eager to bring a hornet’s nest of vested interests about their own ears.