PRICES & WAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 November 1943, Page 4

PRICES & WAGES

STABILISATION MEASURES UNDER ftEVIEW IN CANADA OTTAWA, November 6. The Canadian Government has its whole price and wage stabilisation programme under review, and it is hoped that its decisions will be announced shortly. Over the past few months there has been a slow but steady upward tendency in the cost of living. The official cost of living index now shows a war time increase of 18.4 per cent, an increase of 1.4 points since the cost of living bonus was last adjusted in July, 1942.

As the bonus rises or falls with the index, the increase in the index necessitates a rise of 35 cents a week in the maximum cost of living bonus being paid, thus raising it from 4 dollars 25 cents to 4 dollars 60 cents a week. A month ago the Government considered a reduction in the cost of living by rolling back prices of certain important foodstuffs, as was done in December, 1942. Then, by subsidies and by the elimination of duties, the prices of coffee, tea, oranges and milk were reduced to consumers. In the present case, before the necessary steps could be taken, the Minister of Finance, the Hon J. L. Hsley, states, the index had already risen a full point and the Government decided there would be serious objection to reducing the index just when an additional bonus had become payable. “It is my belief,” Mr Hsley added warningly, “that the.most critical battle in the war against inflation is just getting under way. Canada has been more successful than most other countries in holding prices but these successes could be swept away in the space of a few short months if controls were to be relaxed now. This process of rising ’ wage costs cannot continue indefinitely without wrecking the price structure. It is clear that in the national interest the price ceijing must be held.”