PRICES OF COMMODITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 171, 28 October 1910, Page 3

PRICES OF COMMODITIES.

To the Editor. Sir, —By the piece you printed in Wednesday's paper showing the cost of the things we want every day, yon are helping the public to know the disadvantages of living in New Plymouth from a money point. New Plymouth is a very nice place to live in if you did not liave to make 7s Cd do the work of ss, and since I left Yorkshire, where I earned £1 Is a week, I have not been able to find out why tradesmen that sell us what we want ask for such big profits. I don't think that it is harder to get goods into the shops of Wanganui than into the shops of New Plymouth, ancl it isn't harder to bring coal to this port than it is to bring it to Wanganui. My wife reckons that a difference of 4s Cd for a quarter-ton' of coal is '"robbery," and she was a pit-lass once. She says she knows now why the New Plymouth grocers can live in fine bouses, when they want 2s a pound for tea that the Wanganui grocers charge Is 2d for; and she can't make out why eggs and bacon and milk are dearer in the country they are grown in than anywhere else. A man who has lived here all his life told me that all the place used to be covered with woods and forests, but I went to buy some firewood the other day, and they charged me dearer for it than they would in another place where they brought it for hundreds of miles. The gas is dearer than in any place I ever heard of, and it is the worst light me or the wife has ever seen. Perhaps this is why the coal is so dear, or is it the dearness of the coal that makes the gas so dear? If the Town Council and the aldermen were to make electric light a lot cheaper, tlie gas company would have 'to make gas a lot cheaper. Perhaps I haven't been here long enough to grumble about the prices, but I think, Sir, that there is no reason for Wanganui to be cheaper than New Plymouth. Our worthy Mayor is very anxious to push New Plymouth ahead and to make it a desirable place to live in. He has done a lot in the way of beautifying the beach and Marsland Hill, and now is striving to 'get trams. He should turn his attention to the prices of commodities here and endeavor to bring them into line with those of Wanganui. I don't think the town will get bigger while poor people have to pay such •large prices for everything they want.— I am, etc., "GEORDIE."