THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1913. COST OF LIVING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 20 March 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1913. COST OF LIVING.

A glance at the relative prices of food and labour' abroad as compared' with the rates ruling in New Zealand is often interesting. Of late years the prices of food or the necessaries of life have increased in France at a rate that' is truly phenomenal. At Havre, a city of 135,000 people, on the coast of France, which may be regarded as a representative place, the price <>f -sepond quality beef. which was Is 2d piSr. lb in jL9OI has s advanced' to vis • Lamb has advanced from Is 3d to 2s 14 ; hutter 15;3d..t0 Is lOd; milk 2|d to 3d per quart; bread lid to 2d per -lb-; and pork- Is to Is Bd. The prices quoted for meat is for second quality. .For prime meat the amount that has to be paid is about one-third more. Compared with the cost of food in Great Britain, the price of bread is one-third! more, and the price of meat just about double. Complaint is often made about the price of meat in ;New Zealand, because it closely approaches the prices in the Old Country; but the best beef in Masterton is retailed at 5s to per lb, while mutton is only 3d to 7d, and prime lamb is obtainable at Bd. .The only article that approaches the French rate is butter, and this is retailM at Is 2d and. Is 3d for best factory. In 'France the/working hours for ljands employed in the metal indiisfawes, such as iron-moulders and 'machinists, are ten per. day, and the wages vary from 5s 2£d to 5s 7d. j For'.otlipr workers -fche tours are .ten. j in .summer and eight in winter, the ! wages being regulated according to the working time, Labouirers receive 4s ,sc! per day in summer, and 3s,6sd in' winter: Tn summer and winter resoectively bricklayers get 5s 7£d and 4s 6cl, plumbers 6s 5d and 5s 9£d and ftarpenters ss. 2|d and 4s Bd. The rate for - n early alii • kinds of labour therefore varies from fivepence to eightpence per hour. How the illnaid workers manage to struggle along, especially those who have families to »supT>ort with the necessaries of life at famine pricesj must bo a

puzzle to people living in tliis part of the world. What maizes the figures still -more perplexing ds the circumstance that 1 the population in • the United Kingdom is 370 to the square mile, and in France only 190, or about one-half. The high prices in France no doubt accounts for the serious unrest that is periodically manifested among the industrial population. To allay this unrest it is proposed to establish Government meat markets in towns-with over 5000 inhabitants, so that the consumer may be saved at least a portion of the middleman's profit j but a far more effective plan would be for France to follow the example of Great Britain, and open up her ports for the free admission of beef, mutton, and dairy produce from New Zealand, Australia 'and the Argentine. No more powerful argument in favour of the retention of free trade and the avoidance of preferential or protective duties could possibly be employed than a comparison of the prices of foodstuffs in Franc? with the prices in the United Kingdom.