The Cost of Living

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 189, 7 May 1937, Page 13

The Cost of Living

Sir, —I am a little puzzled by the frequent protestations of the Minister of Commerce and Industry that the present Government is not responsible for the rapidly increasing cost of living, and I wonder whether he will be able to get away with this “Please, sir, it wasn't inej it was the big bad boy across the road who wa| kind of argument.” This blaming of overseas conditions “over which the New Zealand Government has no control” won't wash in the face of the facts. The Minister gives a list of retail goods which have increased in price between March, 1930, and March, 1937, and h« mentions onions increasing from Ijd. to 2|d., or 28.0 ]>er eent.; is it not a fact that the New Zealand Government recently instituted an onion “control”? Then he shows that cheese has gone up by 15.2 per cent., and butter 17.6 per cent.: is not the Government controlling the internal distribution of butter within New Zealand through a Director of Internal Marketing? Then he mentions bacon, which has risen from 1/1A per lb. to 1/3$ per lb., or 14.8 per cent.; is there not a bacon control and fixed price by the New Zealand Government? Also, bread, which has risen 4.3 per cent., in connection with which I seem to have heard that the Minister has fixed prices for wheat, flour and bread. Then 1 believe that freezing charges on all our meat have gone up because of a •'direction" by the Minister of Labour, aud there are rumours that there is some form of control over woolpacks by the Minister of Industries, which has put them up about 6<k each, while the price overseas seems to have gone down instead of uo.

It is not surprising that the cost of living should be rising with all these controls and Government interferences, and further, did not the Minister of Labour recently say that be was responsible for wages in New Zealand increasing by about £l4 millions? As a small trader, I know that you cannot pay out more waggs and other expenses unless you pass, them on to your customers, and some of my customers tell me that they have had no advantages but only disadvantages from the Government's policy. And how brave they were when they were getting into power; I remember “The Elector,” issued bv the Labour Party, bringing out a page promising “a brighter budget for the housewife,” and saying that “the same ouantily nnd qu ilitv of goods will be purchased for 9/under the Labour plan which wou.d cost 12/- under the Coalition.” and the article gave a list of retail goods. It said that sugar would fall from 3d. per lb. under the Coalition to 2d. per lb. under Labour. Now Mr. Sullivan mentions sugar in bis present list, but he says it has gone up from 3 id. to 3id.. or by 7S per cent. What lias gone wrong with Labour’s plan? Is it that with the best of intentions, no doubt, they started something which they can't control, and their lack of business experience made them, promise all kinds of things which they thought they could do, but which they now find they knew too little about. Eighteen months ago they were blan ».» the Coalition, now they are blaming the fellow overseas. Oh, these politicians 1— I am, etc., ANON. Christchurch, May 5.