Cost of Living

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 256, 26 July 1937, Page 3

Cost of Living

Sir, —It has been necessary for me, owing to the indisposition of my wife, to at-, tend to the commissariat department ot the home, a matter I never bother about under ordinary circumstances. The experience has been an education in many directions, particularly in opening my eyes to the alarming increase in the prices of many necessities. These increases must already have overtaken the higher wages lately prescribed by our paternal Government. Another feature of home economy that I think requires immediate reform is the sale of short-weight bread. The other day I bought an alleged 21b. loaf over , the counter. As it seemed to be undersize I weighed it aud found it turned the scales at lib. lloz. The loaf in question was ordinary bread baked in the form of a kind of twist, and I am informed that the shape converted it into “fancy” bread and on this account the baker is not compelled to put up the regulation 21b. of dough. The important question of firing has intrigued me most. The general custom is to sell wood, coal, coke and slack by the sack and not by weight, with the result that the long-suffering public never knows what it is buying as a “sack” is not a reliable or recognised standard either of weight or quantity. The result is that one day you find a sack of coke fills a certain bin. while on another occasion the same alleged quantity only a little more than half fills the same space. You have no redress because the term “sack” is really meaningless, and as a quantity or weight it varies according to the ideas of the person filling it, also on its size.. Surely it is high time fuel of all kinds should be retailed by weight. The public would then at least know what they were buying and paying for. whereas now it is a pure gamble. In England coal carts are compelled to have a tested weighing machine attached to the back of the vehicle, and inspectors have the right to stop any such cart on the street and test the weight of the sacks comprising the load. I think. Mr. Editor, that it is high time something of the sort was introduced into this country. —I am, etc. FAIRPLAY AND FAIRWEIGHT. ■Wellington, July 21.