COST OF LIVING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 36, 8 March 1909, Page 4

COST OF LIVING

SOME LNTEHESTiNG CUiII'AIUSO-NS. Wo have heard much lately of the increase m the cost of living in the Dominion. ll is interesting tu look at Uiis question in the light of the experience of countries liUe Ureal Britain and Liie United States, in Dec-ember ot I'JO7 i report, was presented to tlie House of Commons by the Labor Department of the British Board of irade under title title "Cost of Living of the Working Classes ill the principal industrial towns of Great Britain." It embodied the result of investigations as t» the rents of working-class dwellings, the prices commonly paid by the working classes for meat, bread, and other food commodities, and for fuel, and showed I also the standard rate of wages prevailing m certain selected occupations Jn seventv-scvcn industrial towns ill England .and Wales, eleven in Scotland, and six iu Ireland. lU'uts wore found to be nearly twice as high in London as in the provincial towns, iu cities such as Birmingham ami Leeds the average rcn s were as follows:—For two-roomed cottage 3s 3d, for three rooms 4s l'/sil, tor lour rooms ss, for live rooms (is, lor six rooms 7s l'/ 3 d. The usual cottage tor the working man consists of four rooms, with a rent of 5s a week. In Scotland the tvpical dwelling of the working man i, not a cottage, but a Hat of two, three or four rooms, with rents slightly ill excess of those ruling for cottages of the s ame number of rooms. In order to isccrtarn the manner of living of the working class, the family budgets »1 1!>44 tvpical households were collected. It was" found that each of these families on the average consumed the following quantities of selected commodities in a week:—Bread, sSlbs; potatoes, 1; bsi tea. a olb; sugar 5 1-31U; bacon, l/ a lb, meat, (i'/ 2 lb; butter, Sib; cheese, %lb; (iinrs ldoz.; milk, IU pints; coal, 2c«t. These figures show a fairly generous diet, consisting, ehielly oi bread, meat, potatoes, sugar and milk, 'lhe average amount of wages spent on these articles per week was: For butter and sugai, about Is on each commodity; for miH, Is (id; for bread, 3s 3d; for meat of all kinds lis 3d. By far the most expensive item in the family budget is meat. Im--veal consumption of meat is in a ia ymeasure due to the development of the frozen meat trade. A generation or so ~g„ the table of the working una ,-irelv "raced with a sirloin ot beef, lhe family "earnings of half the 1044 ntmi .es aken was m* a week or less. As a g oral rule, the amount oi wages spent all renl is about oiic-lourth of ttou -pent on food. Iu Eag and and Wales ,n the building trades, the late of ,1 from *1 5° to Xl Ita a week. Jn L-he lurnisliing trades it is about til same Compositors earn from *1 b» t« I!" 15s per week. In Scotland the rate ,jf wa«'es dec-ends to a slightly lonei u el for the less coiupetot worsen, but rises to the same height for the h o hl. skilled. Wages in Ireland are 0,1 a eon siderably lower scale. In the bul trades, including bneklayeis, eaipui tew. plasterers, etc., they vary fiomlos to 33s a week. On the whole 1 n Owl Uritain during tile past few al! > f l,as been a slight increase in the late of wa»es. But this im been neutralised uv°the practically equivalent, rise in retail prices. The increase m tkc punuf coll since 1905 lias been phenomenal, being no less than 13 per cent. lh » has tended to aggravate the di» us now prevailing in the cities of the llomt. United Stales we tod the rate '„f wages uiucli higher than 111 GicJt llritaiu The Bulletin of the Bureau 01 !!iloi published in July. d 0 f:;; with the- wagus and cost of living of t c working classes of America, gives.the family budgets of 250< repres ntat v I families The average rate of D cs - C 3 3s per week, nearly 100 per cent, in oA-at Briton. M , the past ten years 5« I l'' l 1 I ''L ner cent. Hut, again, llm advantage L been taken awav by the increase 1 cost of living, Ectail prim luuc vuneed during the same peiiod 20 pel > cent., and rents have shown a, st. heater increase. Thf way in .which ti c America 11 working man distiibuc-1 |« wages show, on the averse I.j u u it[or'food. 1:1 por cent, for »-Ut, 4 per cent, for fuel, and 1-1 per cc.it. lor clothing. Jt is furious to the item of expenditure; on clothes that the husband spends £4 for eW'i} Li t .. wife spends. The Bulletin- further shows that the average .hours of labor per week have been reduced 5 per cent. —Dunedm Star. / .