THE COST OF LIVING.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 May 1916, Page 8

THE COST OF LIVING.

lirCES AND WAGES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, May 15. "In this country we have started industries we would be very much better without," said Mr. C. G. Stat'ham (Dunedin Central) in the House of Representatives this evening. "I do not want to suggest the destruction of any industry we have built up, but when the time comes after the close of the war to consider our trade relations with other parts of the Empire, we will lmve to consider whether it will not be better for New Zealand to confine herself to the industries for which s'he is particularly adapted." Mr. Statham mentioned the hoot trade, and said that every man or woman who bought a pair of boots in New Zealand paid from 5s to 7s 6d. for the protection of t'he industry. If there were no duty on imported boots that money would be. saved, and the Dominion could afford then to maintain the industry by means of a bonus. Turning to another phase of the subject, Mr. Statham said the high cost of living was due in part to the big profits of the middlemen. He had often wondered why the workers did not take this matter in tlieir own hands and become their own middlemen by means of t'he co-operative system. The difficulty in the way was not the raising of capital, which could be provided easily enough by large bodies of workers, but the securing of efficient management. Workers who started out with the idea that no man was worth more than £3OO a year would wreck their co-operative stores, since they would not secure first class management at the price. There was no doubt at all that middlemen's profits and the cost of distribution liad )i great deal to do with high prices. He would like to see the municipalities doing more than assist the consumers in these directions by providing public markets and means of transport. "It must be realised by every one df us that if we cannot find a solution of the problem of high prices we must ensure that the unskilled laborer is paid a living wage," said Mr. Statham. "The wage must be high enough to provide for the needs of a family and leave a margin for saving against a rainy day. I do not think any rig'ht-minded man will deny the right of the unskilled laborer to such a wage. But if we increase the wages of the unskilled worker, then the workers above liim must have increased wages, and there will be a further increase in the cost of living, since the employers will pass on the increased wages bill, and probably a bit more, to the consumers. The alternative solution is to reduce prices."