EFFECT OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1915, Page 6

EFFECT OF WAR.

INCPKASKI) COST OK LIVING. Since tlii! war started much lias been said of the ini-re-ascd living cost which it lias involved. With so many I'stiinat'.-s of the extent of this increase, it is pessihle tliat some were nearly correct', they could not all have been'so. In tii • .Tilly number of the Lahsr .loi:rna! ilnGovernment Statistician (.Mr. Malcolm Fniser) presents a series of tables, the ie.su It of eareful enquiry and scientific compilation. No douht many people will eondemn liis figures-—since they dill',;' from tlicir own—but Air. fraser im.-, a word to say in his article on the diflicnlties of calculation, and he also incloses ill interesting manner some of the errors which the inexperienced cilcnl- 1 . tors of living costs may m tke. The index number for the three foul groups are not, be explains, combined in simple arithmetical proportion, but on the basis of the use of the articles. In comparing one cpiarlcr with another the ell'-ct of the seasonal price must be remembered. For instance, the price level for the June quarter in each year is raised by the winter prices of such articles as milk and butter, ho that it would be incorrect to say that the diil'ereucc between June prices and December prices represented a war increase alone, or fv»;i disclosed a rise in tin cost of living. Th .■ real comparison is of one year with another complete year, or one quarter with the same quarter of another year. In the case of the war the correct comparison will be duly, 11114, with July, IMS. Mr. Eraser's tables show the prices in twentv-iive towns on 31st Julv, l!li I, and 31 st May, 1015.

| In groceries the Dominion average i.15.88 per tent, increase, Wellington 17.01. T.he biggest increases were:—Masterf-m 23 per cent., Ashburton 20; and the fewest, Oamaru !) per cent.; New Plymouth 10 per cent. Masterton and Ash- - burton were at a low level before 'he war so that the increase has brought them up. As the Dominion average is affected by the towns according to population the four centres have a great effect upon it-in groceries as well as other groups. Dairy produce shows tiefollowing percentage increases:—Dominion, 15.70, Wellington 13.07; highest, Palmcrston North 30, Wanganui and Oiiiuani 27, lowest Nelson 10. The increases, mainly in butter and milk, were largest in the small towns, In meat three towns—Auckland, Christchurch and Nelson—show a decrease; and prices generally have not risen so greatly a.. prices of other commodities, in Auckland at the outbreak of war meat price.-w-'re much above the three other centres, and this high level proved temporal','. Christchurch and Nelson suffered greatly fram shortage of frozen meat sbippi'.rj stace. Palmcrston had the largest increase—24 per cent.; Wellington wa; S.2(j per cent, and the Dominion only 3.55 per cent., the influence of decrease's in Auckland and Christchurch being evi<h nt. As those two towns have about two-fifths of the population of the twenty-live towns considered, it is plain that their weight on the Dominion aver age would be. heavy. In the three food groups combined, the increase is fairly uniform over most of the towns. Palmcrston lias the highest inerease--21 per ct'.it.; Nelson the lowest, 7 per cent.; and the Dominion weighted average 's 11.31 per cent. Wellington is 12.0:; per cent. Various other comparisons v.hien Mr. Fraser makes show that the increase has been greater in the smaller than in the larger towns. 'Tt is imprssible and inaccurate," writes the Stati'dician, ''to state any increase of general prices from a few items which may or may not have' risen equally with other items.'' .Many items have increased more than 11 per cent., but some' have remained stationary The tendency of the amateur calculator is to forget these latter, so that he has an exaggerated idea, has ed upon some phenomenal rises, of the general increase. "Since the outbreak of war," the report adds, "rent has shown a tendency to decrease, the average decrease over the Dominion being abo'it If, per cent.: and if thi, item of rent is added to the other groups it bulks so largely that the cost'of living does m>t appear to lune risen nearly as greatly as is really the case. The great majority of liousehonlders have not yet been affected by the fall in rent, so that the increase in the cost of living is best shown in tiie three food groups alone" J