COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 8

COST OF LIVING

BURDEN OF HOUSING

HAS PRE-WAR BASIS GONE?

INTERESTING OFFICIAL FIGURES,

The Government Statistician coni les to'make comparisons of the cost of living with prices ruling before the war—now twelve years since, and getting on for the eighth of a century. It is ■ all that he has to go upon at present. But the basis, such as it is— a basis of-values soon to become unknown to a rising generation—shows the rental price—index (Dominion weighted, average) for the three food groups (groceries, dairy produce, and meat) as at 15th February was 1634 (taking average prices for the four chief centres during the years 1909-13 as 1000), involving a fall of 18 points as compared-With the corresponding index for the preceding month and showing a price level 52.7 per cent, above that for July, 1914 (viz., 1070). In the groceries group a fall of 43 points has beon occasioned mainly by a drop in the price of potatoes. A rise of 38 points in the dairy produce group is occasioned mainly by increases in egg prices. The fall in meat, which commenced last November, continues, but at a diminished rate, a drop of 9 points only being', recorded in February. DAIRY PRODUCE AND MEAT. Higher prices prevailing this year for flour and bread, and to a lesser extent for general groceries, account for a rise of 41 points in the groceries group this February as compared with last, the only noteworthy decrease in this group being recorded in the case of sugar, the price of which has fallen, considerably since February last year. . All items of dairy produce have risen since February last, causing an increase of 109. points, in this group; in the case of the meat group a similar general increase of 100 points is recorded, prices of beef and pork showing definite increases all round and prices of mutton showing a slight increase in most towns. ■. .' . THE "ALL GROUPS" LEVEL. Expenditure on.food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the total expenditure of the; average New Zealand household, states the Statistician. If the last ascertained price—indexes for other groups-of items of domestic expenditure on base: IQOO for July; 1914 —rent (that for February, 1926—viz., 1742), clothing, ' drapery, and footwear (that for February, 1926—viz., 1573), and .miscellaneous items (that for February, 1926—viz., 1688)— are combined in .their proper respective propor-' lions with the . food price index for February, 1926 (viz., 1527), and with the fuel and light price' index for February, 1926—viz., 1757—the result is to sKow an increase for "all groups" retail price level of 62.4 per cent, over the level of July, 1914. ■Fuel and light' has shown^ the greatest increase since July, 1914, followed very- closely by rent. Miscellaneous items, groceries, clothing, and. dairy produce come next —in that order, while meat- shows the smallest increase of all. .Foodstuffs generally have risen less than other articles of domestic expenditure. •••.'■.■ CLOTHES AND BOOTS. The fall of 26 points since November in. the clothing group is due to a fair drop > in, clothing and drapery, reinforced by a minor fall in footwear. The miscellaneous group shows a fall of 11 points, a slight rise in furnishings being mdreHhan offset by a fall in crockery, while the remaining sub-groups of the miscellaneous group,have exhibited practically stationary price condi-' tions. Fuel and light has shown little movement during the past quarter, though the general tendency is a rising, one. '■ ' ■ . Statistics of house rents are collected semi-annually only. The results of the February collection suggests that the rate of increase in the cost of housing— a cost which has been rising continuously since the outbreak of the Great War—is now slackening somewhat. Ten out of the twenty-five towns considered actually show falls in the rent index number for February compared with that for August last year, but in most of the larger centres the rise continues. WHERE BENTS ARE HIGHEST. / Taking averago rents in the four chief centres during the. years 1909 to 1913 as base, Hamilton shows the highest present rentals (96.4 per cent, above base levels), followed closely by Wellington (95.4 per cent.) and less closely by Whangarei and New Plymouth (each 90.9 per cent.). Kotorua shows a level 82.5 per cent, above the ba!se level, Auckland 77.8 per cent., Wanganui 75.5 per cent., New Plymouth 75.3 per cent, and Christchurch 75.2 per cent. Timaru (66.7 per cent.) and Taihape (62.5 per cent.) are some distance behind. Considerably further behind still come Invercargill (54.5 per cent.), Masterton (52.7 per cent.),,Dannevirke (52,1 per cent.), Gisbofne (50.8 per cent.), Napier (50.0 per cent.), Ashburton, (48:9. per cent.), Dunedin (45.4 per cent.), and Nelson 44.0 per cent). Fairly, low house rents are recorded in Blenheim (35.6 per cent.), Oamaru (27.1 percent.), Gore (11.9 per cent.), and Greymouth'(ll.s. per cent.), while Alexandra (8.8 per cent, less) and Waihi (20.4 per .cent, leas) actually show rent levels below those of the four chief centres in the base period. \ Although the Government Statistician does not say so,, current house rents and the cost of building small dwelling houses in New Zealand, particularly in Wellington, are regarded with incredulity by builders in Australia, particularly when wooden houses are mentioned. THE OVER-WORKED POUND. The retail price index in tho Government Statistician's comments as given above may be more easily apprehended by economists than by the general reader. For the benefit of the latter tho Statistician gives the following interesting table showing how far £1 will go to-day in the purchase of commodities when comparison is made with July, 1914. These figures are the average for the Dominion generally, and are to December, 1925, the latest available: —

Groceries Dairy produce Meat Rent Fuel and light Clothes and boots All groups 11 11 13 93 13 8 11 81 11 5} 13 6 12 2-]