COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 154, 29 June 1912, Page 11

COST OF LIVING

COMMISSION SITTINGS IN AUCKLAND. FURTHER EVIDENCE. [BI TELBGBAPH— PBESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, 28th June. The Cost of Living CoinmiEsion continued ite sitting $>^iay. William Edwaxd Sill, secretary of the Butchers' Union, stated that wages had increased from 15 to 20 per cent, during the past ten years. The cost of labour had not added to the price of meat. A high Home market meant a high local market. The price of meat in Auckland *v:as governed by the Butchers' Association. All the butchers in Auckland, except four or five, belonged to the association. , Thomas Donaid # M'Nab, grocer, stated that- there were two or three wholesalers and two or three retailers who fixed tho Srice of eggs every Saturday morning. »u® firm would ring up others, and ask what the price was to be. Ernest Arthur Craig, secretary df Craig, Ltd., coal merchants and carriers, paid that there had been spasmodic r-Ises in the cost of the carrying trade, coincident with the increased cost of 'labour. Witnees stated that, from 1906-1910, the price of coal had not varied. The statement that outside persons could not gat coal at the pit was incorrect. There was no such thing ac "bond" in the Auckland Coal Dealers' Association. The whole crux of the matter was the extravagant living of working men. Douglas Re<sd, grocer and butcher, eaid there was a combine among butchers to fix prices, and they were under a .penalty to sell at certain prices. He was the only free man. Peter J. Nereheny, contractor and commission agent, said that houses- erected during the last twelve years had shown an increase in rent owing to the high cost of timber and the improved sanitary conditions insisted upon. For carpenters wages had not increased. Henry Barsfield, who .had refused to appear on Thursday ac secretary for the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, appeared in his private capacity. Witness considered that the increase in wages to these workers had been only about Is per week*. He ridiculed the idea, that the quantity of work done by labourers of today was et-eadily becoming less. William Evans, fruit merchant,; considered fruit, especially Island fruit, had increased in price. Local fruit had varied very little. H. N. Bagnall, tea and coffee merchant, said that on twenty-one of food articles used daily in New Zealand, prices had remained almost stationary. James H. Gunson, grain and produce merchant, speaking broadly, said that there had been no appreciable increase in the cost of living during the last two decades as far as the main articles of produce, such as potatoes, onions, etc., wore concerned. Thomas Long, union secretary, was of opinion that the cost of living had increased .to the worker mainly in regard to rents. ' Cottages, which twelve years ago were rented at 8s a week, were now being rented as high as 14s. E. W. Alison, chairman of directors of Taupiri Coal Mining Company, said that during the last thirteen years prices had gone up as follow :—ln: — In 1910 household coal was priced al 13s, steam coal 9s; 1907, household coal 14s, steam coal .9s od; 1906. household coal 15s, steam 10s 6d ; 1909, household coal 16s, steam coal 11s 6d. This was delivered on tho railway at Huntly. Since 1909 there had been no increase. Witness admitted there was a ■ Coal Dealers' Association in Auckland, but his company supplied coal to anyone. • , MEDICAL ATTENDANCE; ETC. Dr. Herbert Goldstein did not consider that the coßt of medical attendance h%d risen during the last twenty years. Doctors' expenses bad increased considerably, but their feeß had not increased. William Eichardson was emphatic in his jßKnion that the the cost of living had not increased. Witness considered most of the money of the people went in gambling and general extravagance.