COST OF LIVING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 311, 28 June 1912, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

AUCKLAND EVIDENCE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Thursday. Giving evidence before the Cost of Living Commission, William 'Evans, fruiterer, said the difference in the wholesale and retail prices of good fruit was about 100 per cent., and in the case of lower grade fruit 25 per cent. 11. N. Bagnall, merchant, was of opinion that the prices of general groceries were practically the same as eighteen years ago. The population had increased 52 1 /. per cent, since 1895, savings bank deposits had increased 250 per cent., and tptalisator investments had' increased 200 per cent. j P. H. Gunson, grain merchant, said' that .prices depended entirely on the seasons and the crops. He could not say there had been any marked increase' in ten or fifteen years. Without pro- , tection here Australia, with her enor- ' mous productiveness, would demoralise,! the New Zealand trade and absorb from' l this country a very large amount of money. . Auckland, Last Night. The Auckland sitting of the Cost of Living Commission will end on Saturday, and on Sunday the Commission will leave for Wellington. At to-day's sitting Thomas Bell, of the. Union Soap and Candle Factory, paid that there was discrimination in some wa.vs in regard to buyers. He admitted that there was an agr»ement that certain products of the factory should not be sold below a contain price. This was only fair, however, for the retiail man. unless he cot a reasonable profit, would not sell the factory's lines.