THE COST OF LIVING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9709, 3 February 1910, Page 4

THE COST OF LIVING.

The father of twenty children whose interesting evidence before the Sydney unskilled Labourers Wages Board has been published, favoured the Board vuth Us experience of the ruling increased ?ost of living. Two years ago, he fid, he had paid 6s a week in rent i r a better cottage than the one ! cj now occupied at 10s 6d a week. During the last two years bread had ripe n from 2d to 2|d a loaf, and sugar from 2£d to 2|d a lb. Potatoes eighteen months ago were 9d to Is a qunrter for the best Circular Heads; now they were l£d a lb. Jam, which t" eWe months ago was 5d to s£dat ; tfas now 7id, and the brand < ; candles which a year back he had uuught for 4d a lb now cost 6d. Mutton and beef had risen in price by 50 per cent., , and the vegetables now procurable were almost beyond eating. Golden syrup had gone up from 5d to 6£d a tin, cheese from 6d to 9d a lb, oatmeal from lOd to la Id a bag, and coal from Is a cwt to Is 6d per 1001b—that was before the strike. Witness now had his wife and four children dependent upon him. He gave the detailed cost of a week's expenditure, which amounted to £2 2s sd, £1 7s 44 being required for food. This worked out at 2Jd a meal. Witness was willing to eat his hat if any gentleman in the room thought 2j|(] a meal was too much for a man who had to break stones for a living.