THE COST OF LIVING.

Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 971, 27 February 1919, Page 8

THE COST OF LIVING.

Or the Cost of High Living ?

MUCH is being said and written , as to the special conditions of social life which have been created by the . war,, and in particular, upon the cost of living. Undoubtedly, the increased price of many commodities presses hardly—indeed, most severely —upon, people of small incomes, and we share the prevailing impression that the National Government has failed to grapple with the difficulty as firmly as it might and ought to have done. At the same time it is undeniable that there was probably no period in the history of the Dominion when there was more widespread and positively wicked extravagance than that which prevails now in all classes of society, throughout the country. "We hear a great deal about the cost of living, but is it hot rather the cost of high living which is the real trouble? Our forefathers, the early colonists, lived a far more simple, more wholesome life than that of to-day, and who shall say that they were not quite as happy . as —they were certainly far more contented than —the present-day New Zealanders. The mania for amusement, the craze for tawdry finery in the way of dress, the hundred and one imaginary wants and falselyimplied necessities of the present-day did not exist when Wellington was in the making. People had their homely pleasures, and found more pleasure in their homes than they do to-day. There was little or none of the vulgar ostentation and snobbishness with which our cities are familiar to-day. Best of all, the virtue of thrift had not become a subject to sneer at, but was widely practised and honoured.

It is as untruthful as it is absurd to contend that the average New Zealander has not to-day equal opportunities for thrift, for improving his position and that of his family as those enjoyed by the early settlers. The truth is that to-day easily-earned money is squandered' upon luxuries which are falsely deemed necessaries of life. Only the other day we read in a Wellington daily journal of a flaxmill worker, whose wages had averaged over £8 a week, and yet who calmly declared that it had taken every penny he earned to support his wife and family. Eight pounds a week is, roughly, £400 a year. It is ridiculous to say that with such an' income there is no margin for the putting by of a weekly sum wherewith to meet the exigencies of that rainy day which inevitably the majority of people have sooner or later to face. The bad example of extravagance set higher up in the social scale is no excuse. One man's folly does not justify its imitation by another. Without being pessimistic as to the economic future of New Zealand we are convinced that unless production be substantially ' increased there will come for this country another cycle of lean years such as we experienced in th© early eighties of the last century. There may be no _ reason for anxiety by those who exhibit reasonable economy, who are industrious and thrifty, but for many of those who to-day fritter away so large a proportion of their earnings on follies and extravagances there must come, we are convinced, a very rude and unpleasant awakening.