COST OF LIVING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 168, 18 July 1941, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

RATIO CHALLENGED j, . GOVERNMENT HITS BACK j I (By Telegraph—Parliamentary Reporter.) j WELLINGTON, this day.l Speaking in the Budget debate] ; last night, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, said that nothing could be more misleading than the [ statement of the Minister of Finance that the cost of living had increased jby 6i per cent. The Minister had , chosen a brief period before the war began. What concerned the public jWas the increase in living costs

jto-day compared with what theyi were when Labour took office. I Mr. Holland said that official 1 [figures showed that from 1930 _to: iMarch. 1911. living costs had in-; ;creased bv more than 22 per cent orj 4/4 in the £. In addition to this.' the cost of living had been further 1 increased by the taxation required: ito pay subsidies on bread, sugar, coal land other commodities, the total of which was in the vicinity of, |£1,000,000. This represented aboutj 12/6 per head of the population pen • year. ; Price Tribunal figures dealing with - the cost of living showed that the , retail index had risen only 6.1 per 5 cent from August. 1930, to February. 2 1941. said the Minister of Industries ? and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, in j reply. To a large extent the increase j was accounted for by the greater rise shown for imported goods, r i Efforts towards stabilisation would. c jhe said, be carried still further by s the process of subsidies.