15

H.-44

of food ate published by the Government Statistician's Office, and the Board has asked him to furnish a comparison from the latest official records available showing how the " cost of living,'' as later defined, in New Zealand compares with the cost of living in other countries. They are as follows :

It is essential, however, to discuss the precise meaning of the term ''cost of living," otherwise its very familiarity may prove a pitfall where so much depends upon clearness and accuracy of expression. We adopt the definition given in the Report of the Royal Commission on the Cost of Living in 1912. Broadly speaking, the term means " the sum of exertions and sacrifices necessary to maintain life." Inasmuch as the common measure of such exertions and sacrifices is money, the " cost of living " in the usual acceptance means the amount of money paid out for subsistence, and " change in the cost, of living " means any variations in the volume of such payments. Thus the first obvious factor in the cost of living is price— the rate at which subsistence, may be purchased; and the figures —namely, 34 per cent, may be taken as a rough indication or index of the increase in the rate at which subsistence may be purchased in New Zealand during the war period. But clearly price is not the only factor. If the amount coming into the possession of the individual is adjusted simultaneously with any changes in price, then, given a fixed standard of living, there, has been no real change in the cost of living. The Government Statistician provides the following table showing percentage increases in wage rates from July, 1914, to July, 1918 :—

This table shows increases varying from 4| per cent, up to 37J per cent. Considering the large number of workers in the trades receiving the higher rates of increase, and secondly the fact that the increases quoted refer to minimum rates, it is safe to assume that the average actual rate of increase in earnings is probably between at least 20 per cent, and 25 per cent. Earnings, however, in turn depend upon more than one consideration. They depend not only on the rates of remuneration, but they depend quite as much on regularity of employment —in other words, on the net annual amount earned, whether as wages, salary, profit on business, or other net income of any kind. Thus, from the broad point, of view, the cost of living involves the whole gamut of relationship between the incomes and spendings over the year, and the investigation of it must takeaccount not only of the factors just mentioned, but of their relations and influences inter se, for they are not separate and isolated phenomena, but are bound up inextricably with each other, and constitute little less than the entire economic activity of the community.

i """ "• • I I Country. | Prom .Inly, 1914. to Increase per Cent, Australia, . . New Zealand United States of America Japan ■ .. Canada Netherlands Italy France (Paris) Switzerland United Kingdom Germany Sweden . . .. • Austria Norway .. March, 1918 .. March, 1918 .. March, 19.18 .. July, 1917 .. .. March, 1.918 . . July, .1.917 . . . . September, 1917 January, 1918 .. March,'1918 .. March, 1918 .. October, 1916 .. j March, 1918 .. I August, 1917 .. | March, 1918 s 30 34 51 66 70 81 88 91 96 107 109 135 173 195

Occupation. Peroentage Increase. Occupation. Percentage Increase. ■• i .'.:.'. Aerated-water workers Bakers Bootmakers (female) „ (male) Bricklayers Brewery employees Butchers (general hands) .. „ (shopmen) Carpenters Coachworkers Coal-miners Drivers Electrical workers Engineers Fell mongers Flour-mill employees Freezing-workers .. ! 8-31 .. j 20-50 14-50 .. ; 12-50 12-46 19-05 20-90 13-12 11-11 9-09 18-00 20-00 20-60 20-45 13-19 14-83 16-92 i Furniture-makers Grocers' assistants Labourers (general) Painters Plasterers Plumbers Printing machinists Seamen Shearers Storemen (retail soft-goods) Tailoresses Timber-workers Waterside workers Woollen-mill employees (female) ,, (male) 21-93 27-75 13-84 4-54 10-89 11-11 7-69 29-10 37-50 9-09 10-00 10-00 17-39 27-89 27-22 ; 19-96