COST OF LIVING.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1916, Page 2

COST OF LIVING.

To the Editor. Sir,—There are a certain class of people whose one panacea is. wages must go up. After many years' experience I have found that a rise in wages spells a rise—a big l one. too—in everything we need. A candid friend of the bakers lately told us in print that we had to pay for shoeing the bakers' horses, painting tlicii carts, the rise in men's wages, etc. These trifles go on your bread bill, lint as the same rule applies to the butcher and grocer, it is time we sat up and took notice. Local market prices, as published in your contemporary on Inly 21 were: Buying price for eggs Is 4d per dozen, selling Is fld. I leave every one to express their opinion. You would blue-pencil mine. Wo are being bled all around. Look it the meat we get—eternal old cow! Butter and milk —.two great needs for the children's welfare—have to be cut almost to vanishing point. This is one of the most bountiful spots on earth, and there should be plenty for all. What I want t» do is to draw attention to the large number of people who have a very small fixed income, most of them too old to work and utterly unable to earn an e.vtra shilling. God alone knows how the oldage pensioners exist. You can't call it living. There is no rise in wages for (hem; but they are forced to pay more than a fair share of the cost of living, because small quantities of cheap-quality goods are the dearest in the end. It : « the same with clothing. Sir, if J could tell some of the needs and plights I have come across in New Plymouth you would hardly credit that such things could benot want brought by wrong-doing, but just downright misfortune, dire poverty hidden. I admire these women; they have real dignity. Tam well aware that this question is not going to be settled by letters to the paper. The women in America have taken the matter up with both hands. I shall be told that the women of \"e\v Zealand are working all day and half the night. Well, now they must do more brain work and make it their business to see that the "■rindstoiic is used on the face of the helpless poor no longer. I notice that most of the speakers for a rise in pay are prominent at socials, picture shows, card parties, etc., while others can't afford a daily paper. Some are making money over JJiis awfi.l war—blood money; blood shed by the bravest men Xeiv Zealand reared. The race meetings tell the true tale, and yet, if 1 only gave sixpence to each patriotic fund that I sm asked to assist, I could not meet the just demands. 1. don't feel I want a motor-car for 2s Od while I need a pair of warm gloves, either, Personally, don't believe the Government is going to solve the question. I don't believe in deputations or commissions. They first send a man to Parliament to represent them, which he generally does. The latter have a nice round trip at the country's expense. They try to look wise, write a long report that goes into a pigeon-hole, and we pay as usual. —I am, etc.,