“AMAZED AND SHOCKED”

Evening Star, Issue 25679, 31 December 1945, Page 4

“AMAZED AND SHOCKED”

DOMINION LIVING COSTS NAVAL OFFICER’S CRITICISM Criticism of tho high cost of living that returning New Zealand service-; men are encountering is made by a recently-returned naval officer in a letter published in the ‘ New Zealand Herald,’ in which ,he compares prices of the “ for the most part inferior New Zealand, articles ” with prices at present obtaining in Britain, Canada, and the United States, and complains of, “ complete lack of price control ” in’ this country. On his first day in Hamilton since he returned, he states, he was both amazed and shocked at prices asked —a cup and saucer selling for 6s 6d, an egg beater for 13s 9d, strawberries at 5s 8d a box, cheap glasses which could be bought in the United States for 5 cents, 1s 6d to 2s 6d, and for a small saucepan 18s 9d. The prices were not only prohibitive, but the quality of the articles was for the most part inferior. CAR PRICES UNCONTROLLED. “ Probably one of the most glaring examples of lack of price control is the case of the motor car,” he continues. “ I have a friend who lias been in the Air Force for five years. On joining he sold his 1934 model American car for £BS, a. then fair price. He has no car now, and to buy the same model how, five years older, he would have to pay at least £225. I myself have recently paid £l6O for a 1929 model car, about £IOO more than its value in 1940. “ I have heard it said that American prices were, and still are, fabulously high. After nearly 12 months in the United States and Canada I most emphatically state that the only thing which is cheaper in New Zealand is food, and even this has risen appreciably, although the farmer seems to get little or no benefit from it. SOLDIER HARD HIT. “ The hardest hit person _in New Zealand is the returned soldier. His gratuity if he has been away _ from four to five years is in the vicinity of £2OO. Perhaps the crowning insult to one’s intelligence was the effrontery of the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, in endeavouring to hold up their payment.. and it is obviously no thanks to him that the gratuities are being paid after March, 1946. For this I think we have to thank the Opposition, tho pressure of the Returned Services Association, and the 1946 elections. “ The Government talks of tho danger of inflation, and one reads overseas of the low income tax in New Zealand. One never reads, however, of the 2s 6d in the pound or the many other bits and pieces of indirect taxation. “ Because of this so-called danger of inflation Mr Nash wished to delay tho payment of gratuities. I would like to ask him and his _ supporters what the returned soldier is expected to do in the meantime and how is he to exist. “Mr Nash was afraid that, like a little had boy, the returned soldier would go out fnto the streets and spend his £2OO, and who could blame him: for £2OO will not buy him onethird of the ordinary necessities of life. The returned soldier has in many cases to start a house: I myself have a wife and child, and, apart from the impossibility of getting a house, the thought of the initial output for household crockery and utensils alone sends cold shudders up and down my spine. LIVING WITH PARENTS. “ Ninety per cent, of returned servicemen, their wives and families, are living with their parents or relatives,’’ the correspondent continues. “ They cannot afford to rent a flat at £4 4s to £5 5s a week if they could get one. They cannot afford to buy household equipment. They cannot afford to buy furniture. They cannot_ afford to buy inferior clothes at ridiculous prices and, finally, they certainly cannot afford to buy any of the semiluxuries to which they have been looking forward for so long. “ A hundred thousand returned servicemen will vote next year, and this time their votes will be recorded,” the writer concludes.' “ I only hope that these men will see, as I think the majority must seq already, that what little the Government is reluctantly giving these men will he given with one hand and taken away with the other.”