THE COST OF LIVING.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1920, Page 9

THE COST OF LIVING.

is IT PREVENTIBLE? 'j At a W.C.T.U. Convention at Wellington on Monday night an address was delivered by Professor Murphy (of Victoria College) on the cost of living. The title of Professor Murphy's lecture was, "Is the Present" High Cost of Living Preventible?" He dealt with his subject under three heads —"the problem," "the causes," and "the remedy," The problem, he said, was the question of the cost of those necessaries for efficiency which are habitually demanded and essentially required by the mass of the people. The question of the cost of living was more than a mere material problem. It had been truly said, "man does not live by bread alone." But he must first have bread if he was to live; and we could not have the higher life of the mind and the spirit for the people, unless we had first an ample food supply, reasonably comfortable conditions of living, and reasonable leisure. INFLATION OP CURRENCY From the beginning of the present century up to 191*2 or 1913, he pointed out, the cost of living in New Zealand, according to the most careful estimates had riseu 16 to 20 per cent., in conformity and sympathy with the rise in the cost of living all over the world. But after the .war fcrolce out, in the space of live years, it had doubled or more than doubled. The index- figure for the three food groups in the February Abstract of Statistics was 1688, an increase of 26 points since December last, and of 57.76 points on the index number for July, 1914, But, stated Professor Murphy, the greatest increase had taken place in the cost of commodities not included in the Government Statistics —the boots, hats, clotheg. textiles, etc., imported from abroad. There was nothing sinister about that It was due to the difficulty of getting proper price quotations. Including the things he h|d enumerated they would find that the cost of living had doubled since the war broke out. In other countries it was a great deal worse. In England there had been a rise of 200 to 300 per cent.—nearer 300 than 200. Why had the cost of living doubled, and to what extent could it have been prevented? The cause of the great increase of prices, he stated, would be found in the eauses bearing on the volume of money on the one hand and in the causes bearing on the volume of goods on the other. Summed up, the soaring cost of living was due to an over-production of currency and an under production of goods. How our currency had been inflated in New Zealand could be seen from the fact that in 1910-13, the average number of notes in circulation was 1,000,000; in 1914 the number had risen to 1,000,000; in 1915 to 2.800/ KM); in 1910 to 4,000,000in 1917 to 5,000,000; in 1918 to 6,000,000; .and in 1919 to over 7,000,000. NEVER SO MOOT MONEY. Could they wonder that people said there was never so much money in circulation in New Zealand before? The doubling of the cost of living was due to the fact that was twice as much money doing the same work as in 1914; and therefore the money went only half as far. Mr. Massey had repeatedly stated that the high cost of living was due to the inflation of the currency If he believed that, why did he not begin to deflate the currency? (Applause). It could be done. Lenin had stated that there was no subtler and no surer means of overturning the present state of things than debauching the current, thereby scaling down the wages of the workers and scaling up the profits of the capitalists until the inevitable crash came. Every additional £1,000,000 of notes issued meant scaling down the wages of some poor man and the inflation of the profits of some rich man. The Government, in working in that way, was defrauding the workers and benefiting the profiteers—playing, in short, the game of the extremists,' and that was why the extremists never protested against the issue of more banknotes. In consequence of the war, there was a net shortage of necessities, WORLD SHORTAGE. There was not enough food and clothing to supply the wants of all the peoples; and at the sam e time all nations had been inflating their currencies. ' Men had been taken from the production of goods to produce munitions of war, and the belligerent countries had run heavilv into debt. Another cause of the increased cost of living was the wholly admirable determination of the workers—a determination in the best interests of the nations —to live on a higher and better plane. (Applause.) That was, perhaps, the one innocent cause of the rise in the cost of living. Another cause, as to the innocence or otherwise of which he would not then pronounce, was the goslow policy arising from the strained relations between Labor and Capital. Yet another cause was f.oolish and extravagant expenditure on non-essentials. The great causes of the high cost of living were over-production of currency and under-production of goods; and, to remedy the matter, we must deflate the currency, keej> down the tariff, produce more, and give up extravagance. (Applause.) ' == I