THE COST OF LIVING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1938, Page 10

THE COST OF LIVING

COMPARISON OF FIGURES. Australian houvewives compaining of the present high cost of living may be interested to compare a few prices of the past states a Sydney newspaper. In England, 1561-1570 a bushel of wheat cost Is lOd; a pound of beef about IJd; fowl the same; a pound of butter, 3d; a pound of sugar, 9d; 100 eggs 2s lOd. At that time labourers were paid about 9|d a day. In the 18th century in Ireland (between 1779-1781), butter was s?d per lb; sugar, 8d; meat—beef and mutton, 2jd per lb; pork, 2£d; fowl, 6d each; chickens, 2d. A turkey could be bought for lOd; a goose for Bd. A hundred oysters cost Is and 200 herrings 2d. Salmon was 2d per lb. Coffee, Is lOd and tea (green), 11s. The Cook’s Oracle in 1821 gives sugar at 8d per lb in England, with tea still Ils. In the hungry forties so well known in Australia as the lean period, a 2|lb loaf in England cost 6d and more here. Meat was unprocurable for many. The poor could only afford it once a month. Sugar varied from 5d to 8d still, and the cheapest tea was 4s per lb. A working man’s wages was from 6s to 10s per week them