PRICES RISING

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 91, 14 October 1935, Page 8

PRICES RISING

TAXATION A FACTOR

A HOUSEWIFE'S PROBLEM

EFFECTS OF EXCHANGE

•As chancellor of the domestic exchequer; the wife-who knows her job, is painfully realising the difficulty of budgeting for a surplus. Whether she has .the responsibility of disbursing a fixed household allowance or whether she has all the income available, i.e., the pay envelope intact, she is becoming more and more aware of the steady upward course in the price of things. Here Id or 2d more on the week, there 3d or 6d. more on an article than she paid for it h a month ago; whereas her allowance is no more than it was before these advances in prices began.

Were she to consult the Government Statistician he would explain, and that no doubt with characteristic courtesy:— The retail-prices index (base: 1926-30 —1000) (for August) shows an increase, of 2 points since: the previous' month. Of the individual groups, the only one to exhibit a decrease is that for dairy-produce (18 points) due principally to;-a'.fall in the price of eggs. The rent- index,', based on the usual half-yearly inquiry, has advanced 10 points' since February, and the majority of centres in respect of which information is collected- report a keen demand for houses and a definite upward tendency in rents. There has been practically no movement in the clothing and drapery group since the last collection of data (in May). ' NO HELP FROM STATISTICS. Authentic as this information is, it conveys no comfort to the housewife with only so much money to come arid go upon, and prices rising against her. Some light on'the subject of taxation and exchange as factors in increasing the competent housewife's burden is thrown by the New Zealand Drapers' Federation official organ, which remarks:— "It 5s by no means uncommon to hear some observer studying prices in the shops" here, and ■ indignantly remarking on.what they could buy the same goods for, in London, or Manchester, or Glasgow! But there is neither the time nor the opportunity of getting these critics for a quiet explanation, when it could be shown exactly what it means to pay 25 per cent, exchange, 25 per cent, or more duty, 5 per cent, sales tax, 3 per cent, primage, freight,'y insurance, and charges (plus exchange), before the goods can.be brought into stock here, and before any allowance is made for local rates and taxes, rent, interest, wages, and overhea* charges. "If only an itemised statement could be shown each shopper, they would be staggered on realising how much in every pound'spent shopping goes in the payment of indirect taxation. The job of collecting. it is forced on the retailer and he would ■ welcome being relieved, of it, and to find +he money now diverted to the State going to the purchase of more goods., As it is the shopkeeper gets /no thanks, but receives quite a. lot of- blame which should really be laid on. the tax collector." ■ How much the London butter and cheese market is influenced by the sinister shadow cast by the ItaloAbyssinian war over financial and commercial affairs it is very difficult to say; but the meteoric advance in the price of New Zealand butter to 126s per cwt in London will be reflected in a corresponding further advance in the price of butter in every home. WAR AND PRICES. The rise in the price is a very good thing for the dairy farmers of the Dominion, and it may be so, indirectly, for the Dominion, but it does not put any more into the housewife's purse. There is, too, that exceedingly trying interval between adjustment of restricted incomes to meet advanced prices. It is not inappropriately called a "lag." ■ , There is, of course, always the alternative of "doing without." But some things cannot be done without. Cabled advices received, by Wellington business houses from their overseas correspondents continue to report! advances in prices for many articles in general use, as they- are or as essential, materials for manufacture in New Zealand. Soap, glycerine, medicinal paraffin, olive oil, rice, tapiocas and sago, various derivatives from the coconut, and'certain, canned foods. The improved tone of .the' British market for frozen meat is reflected in prices of New Zealand meat for the local markets. As for prices for clothing no more need be said than has been said above by the Drapers' Federation. That organisation speaks not only for the clothing and boot retailing trades but for other retailers when it states:— _ ■..■;..• "The unfortunate retailer is the final link in the tax collecting process. The more the trader has to collect for this purpose the more Restricted becomes the actual spending power of his customers, and the more limited his total trade turnover of goods. "Not only is this the case with' so large a proportion of our indirect taxation, but the bulk of the exchange on imports has to,_be paid, directly or indirectly, by the retailer, and collected by him from the public, and how often the shopkeeper, is suggested of profiteering when' he is merely performing his forced task of collecting taxes for the State or exchange bonuses for bur exporters." I