WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3434, 13 March 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE COST OF LIVING. 5 FURTHER ADVANCE. fl (Special Correspondent.) 3 WELLINGTON, March 12. * A further advance in the price of bread, a threatened advance in the price of milk and an inevitable advance in the prices of boots and many articles .of clothing are straining the purses and the patience of people with small fixed incomes to the utmost. A large proportion of the wageearners, as distinguished from oflice and other indoor workers who prefer to call their wages salary, have obtained a certain measure of relief from an increase in their pay; but even these are beginning to discover that the concessions they have obtained from their employers are not sufficient. to meet the increased cost of living. The railwaymen are retjecting Mr Justice Stringers’ propoFsals because they hold them to be utterly inadequate to meet the needs -of their position and the mass of the community is disposed to support them in their contention. ‘WELLINGTON-‘S SPECIAL PLIGHT.

Wellington long before the war was a. notoriously “dear place to live. in" and now it. has reached a pass in this respect which many of the workers are xleclaring to be well nigh intolerable. Btlf when the figures come to be analysed it is found that the capital city, except in the matter of rent, is really no Worse off than the other big centres of population. In Auckland the rise in prices since the beginning of the war in the three food gi-oups—groceries, dairy produce a.nd meat—hag reached 51.28 per cent, in Wellington 52.17 per cent., in Christchurch 63.20 per cent. and in Dunedin 69.48 per cent. Of course the prices were lower in Christchurch -and Dunedin to start. with, and this makes the percentage advance all the larger, but the index figures show prices now are actually higher in these two cities than they are in the other two centres-. - ' . _

A COMPARISON. The index figures for the three food groups. according to the Governnient Statistician’g latest report, are Auckland 1606, Wellington 1626, Christchurch 1642 and Dunedin 1664. But when all the groups are included, rent. fuel and light, as well as food, Auckland stands at 1411, Wellington at 1518. Christchurcn at 1435 and Dunedin at. 1431. Strangely enough. to the unitiated, meat is much more costly in Christchurch and Dunedin than. it is in the two northern cities, the index figure for Christchurch being 1784 and for Dunedin 1766, while the index figure for Auckland is 1625 and for Wellington (1522. In.rent, however. Wellington soars above all its contemporaries, its index figure being 1321, while those for Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin are 1055, 1057 and 1006 respectively. Obviously if Wellington people would live in tents and sustain themselves on meat their city would be the cheapest place of residence, under similar conditions, Within the Dominion. ' THE STAFF OF LIFE.

The latest blow to housewives here ——-the last straw, as some of them are declaring—is the advance in the price 'of bread. The Board of Trade and the millers and bakers «at their conference in Christchurch appear to have agreed upon an advance of two pence in the price of the four pound loaf, but this was more than the Prime Minister could sanction, and after a prolonged conference with the bakers he has arranged that the advance shall be only one penny for a. month and that at the end of that period the position shall be reviewed. Meanwhile the bakers are to furnish to the Board of Trade detailed accounts of the cost of rnamffactiire and to he allowed to collect a faffhing for the delivery of the two pound loaf. Independent experts are dividml as to what the ultimate outcome will be. but the bakers: insist they will be enrl'.\'ing on at a loss.