COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Issue 88, 12 April 1924, Page 7

COST OF LIVING

COMPARISONS WITH AUSTRALIA

MORE PLEASURE AND LEISURE

FOR AVORKERS.

The standard of living and the spending power of money in Australia, declares Mr. J. Roberts, secretary of the Alliance of Labour, and of the New Ze.aland Waterside Workers' Federation, who has just returned from a visit to the Commonwealth, is much higher than it is in New Zealand. ' The cost 'of iivincr, lie stated tills morning, was not as high, as in the Dominion. Food prices were about the same, but such i items as • clothing and rents were much [ cheaper. This remark applied particularly to-Brisbane, where the cost of housing was lower than in auy other state in Australia. This was due to the intense housing policy being- carried on by the Queensland Government. One of the most noticeable features of life in Australia was that the workers could afford more pleasure and enjoy' moTe leisure than could the workers in New Zealand. T.his was principally dua to the fact that the minimum award rates laid down by the Court of Arbitration in Australia, were not regarded as the maximum to the same' extent as in New Zealand. The minimum rare For waterside workers in Sydney and Melbourne was 2s 10jd per hour up till recently, when a reduction of Id per hour had been effected as a result of a fall fti the cost of living. In addition the watersiders received rates for special cargoes, such as coal, etc., which were*higher than the minimum prescribed for general cargo. In Brisbane the vate for handling general cargo was 2s lid per hour, and this was not subject to increase or reduction, according to fluctuations in the cost of living. The vate for coal workers in Brisbane was 3.* lid per hour, and special cargoes wero paid for at from 2d to 6d per hour more than the minimum rate. Wharf appliances and methods of handling cargo at all the Australian portsj Mr. Roberts observed, were much less efficient than in New Zealand. Cargoes were handled chiefly by ship's gear, and wharf acommodation was very congested. Cargoes were handled j much more expeditiously in the Domin- i ion. ■ There was pracaically no unemployment in Australia at the present t;:iio —at any -rate, he saw very little evidence of it. There was none in Brisbane, and the same applied to Melbournn and Newcastle, and the smaller gorta There was, however, a fair amount of unemployment in Sydney, but act so much as at this tims luet £<vi. ' i