COST OF LIVING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1941, Page 3

COST OF LIVING

WORKERS’ CLAIMS FOR HIGHER WAGES. ARGUMENTS PRESENTED TO ARBITRATION COURT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Reasons for the increase in the cost of living, changes in employment, advances by the Reserve Bank to the Government, the note issue and the 1041 Budget were discussed by Mr A. McLagan, president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, when advocating the workers’ side of the cost of living case which was continued in the Court of Arbitration in Wellington yesterday. He dismissed any suggestion of inflation, and said a review of the position of producers of wool, butter, cheese and meat illustrated the very satisfactory financial position of New Zealand farmers. This review did not, however, cover the .whole position, he said, as farmers had received certain other benefits which protected I them against costs or against the effect of war conditions or which had otherwise provided them with much more stable financial positions. The fundamental question in a consideration of inflation, he added, was the relationship of purchasing power to the supply of consumer goods, but other factors entered into the position, said Mr McLagan, There might be special reasons for the increase in the retail price of certain articles, but it was considered that a substantial reason for the increase in the cost of living could be found in the increased cost of imported raw materials, producers’ goods and consumers’ goods, as revealed clearly by the official retail prices index. The clothing, draper and footwear

index had increased by 21 per cent between August, 1939, and August, 1941, the miscellaneous index by 12.2 per cent, and the all-groups index by 7.8 per cent. A similar position was revealed by a study of the wholesale prices index. From the outbreak of war to September, 1941, the index for imported commodities had risen by 34.1 per cent and the index of locally produced commodities by 6.9 per cent. The continued increase in the cost of living was due to factors over which New Zealand had no control.

The application before the Court was brought under the Rates of Wages Emergency Regulations, 1940, by the New Zealand Engine Drivers’ and Firemen’s Industrial Union of Workers, seeking a general order increasing wages by 7.8 per cent to meet the higher cost of living, and the hearing will be resumed next week, when Mr W. J. Mountjoy, secretary of the Wellington Employers’ Assocaiton, will put the case for the employers of New Zealand. Mr Justice Tyndall is presiding, with him on the bench being Messrs W. Cecil Prime (employers’ representative) and L. M. Monteith (employees’ representative).