HIGH COST OF LIVING
PRICES IN THE EARLY DAYS. Auckland housewives in 1844 must sometimes have been in despair of making ends meet, the prices of ordinary necessities were so high. Bread was ltd a pound, and fresh pork 31d, in contrast to beef or mutton which were sd. Butter, if fresh, was Is 6d a pound, and salt Is a pound, a high .price in terms of the higher purchasing power of money nearly one hundred years ago. Milk was hardly cheap at 4d a quart, and sugar was definitely expensive at 4d a pound. The distance from sources of supply, the comparatively small numbers of stock yet imported, and the rudimentary state of agriculture in the infant settlement made commodities dear. Pork and potatoes, which were £2 10s a ton, were the .only foods produced locally in any quantity and these were cheap. But a labourer’s w’age was still about 3s a day!
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1939, Page 6
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155HIGH COST OF LIVING Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1939, Page 6
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