THE COST OF LIVING

Evening Star, Issue 17320, 7 April 1920, Page 4

THE COST OF LIVING

DUNEDIN PRICES ARRAIGNED, i High prices, and the variation of price ' for the same goods indifferent shops in Dunedin were seriously discussed by the Dunedin Women Citizens' Association last evening, and after several suggestions, including one for a boycott, the following interim suggestion wp.s adopted : "That a committee be formed, and that delegates from every association of women in the City be asked to attend, . when ways and means of reducing the high Cost of Living can be discussed." SOME FANCY PRICES. Miss M'Lean said there were several instances of very high prices being charged for drapery dn Dunedin. (Applause.) She did not think she was stating the position too strongly when she said it was a crying scandal. One instance she could vouch for. Before the war a pair of La Valliere gloves cost 6s lid. Last week a lady of her acquaintance had gone into one of this Dunedin drapery emporiums and asked for a pair of these same gloves. The price was 23s 6d. Another woman had desired to purchase a pair of viyella socks for her little girl. She had bought one pair at a shop for 3s 7d. She had then gone to another shop, where she had been charced 2s 7d for the same kind of socks, and finally had bought a third pair in a George street establishment for 2s 2d per pp.tr. She asked if it was right that there should be three prices in the main street for similar _ article*. Any member of. the association could go with her round these stores the next day, and she would show them prices for women's coats and skirts fixed at from 20 guineas upwards. For a dark bine serge, perfectly plain, with no trimmings, £25 16s was asked. She knew it to be true that hats were being sold in their City at six guineas each. She thought it was a disgrace for women to put hats on their heads that cost six guineas. (Applause.) The chairwoman nad mentioned that the class which was most affected by these high prices was the salaried class, and she agreed with this . sWement. _ She thought that their bank clerks and insurance clerks must be having s fearful struggle to Jive. She was sure" if the association took the proper steps, they could help to bring down tho prices of the necessaries of lire and help their poorer sisters. Thev onlv needefl to boycott aH the shops for three months, and buy only the necessaries of life, and she wiio sure that prices would come down. She said this because not once but many tirnes lately it had been said to her over the_ counter in these same shops: "You ladi-.--s have ijoi ihe remedy in'vour own bends. Dur.'t buy, and the prices" must come clown." They must act together. They could draw up a circular, in -which the signatories would promise not- to buv anything but the necessaries of life, and she thought it would be signed, and fulfilled, by thousands of women in Dunedin. (Applause.) _ She hoped very much that tne association would take up the matter. The^ war should have tarcrht that they should help one another. -Applause.) The President (Mrs Clark) paid no one seemed to have noticed the .increased cost of newspapers, which had gone up 100 per cent. In pie-war days a much larger space m the newspapers was devoted to re.id:ng matter than at the present, time, and the ■price of advertising had gone up ita addition. Mrs Hears Mirams said that aa lons C 3 the people would pay tho high prices fhetf would be charged them, She suggested that a scale of prices should be drawn up, and thai they should agree not to pa*/ more than this scale. Tha President said they were paving for f»r more than they received. The retail shopkeepers had toid them that, so long as the individual buyer wsni-ed particular goods they were iorced to stock them. It was a woman's question— they were the spending farter. Men were not aoiiv to pay 20 guineas for their sajU-Vinoied, many of them were wearing; shabby-look-ing clothes in their attempt to economise.