CHINESE BUDGETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 April 1934, Page 10

CHINESE BUDGETS

WHERE RICE IS A LUXURY The Chinese, especially the very poor among them, are notoriously a frugal race. To many people accustomed to Western standards of living it will surely come as a surprise, however, that in Peking working-class families with as many as six persons in the household are able not only to exist on an income of scarcely more than 3/- a week, but actually to wind up the year with a small surplus, states the “Manchester Guardian’s” Peking correspondent. This remarkable achievement is one of a great many interesting facts I about Chinese home life revealed in a detailed economic study recently published. The investigation was made under the direction of Mr. Sidney D. Gamble, research secretary of the National Council of Young Men's Christian Associations, who has specialised for many years in the study of Chinese sociological problems. Mr. Gamble and two Chinese associates persuaded 283 typical Peking families with incomes ranging from the equivalent of 10/- to £34 a month to keep itemised accounts of what they got and how they spent it during the year. The result is an illuminating lesson in the art of making both ends meet. Occupations followed by the 340 male wage-earners among the families studied were extremely varied, ranging from college professor all the way down the social scale to such humble callings as barber, bird-catcher, and rickshaw coolie. Many of the women also earned small amounts by sewing and washing; a few of them made toothbrushes at one Chinese copper (approximately one twenty-fifth of a penny) apiece. Individual households ranged in size from two to 24 persons, the largest consisting of a married couple with their five sons, four daughters-in-law, nine grandchildren, and four servants. The average number of persons per family was 4.G.

: A PENNY A DAY FOR FOOD The accounts showed that 200 oui of the. 283 families lived within theii incomes and that more than half ol these were able to save money. The average annual expenditure per family was found to be about £42. Food was by far the largest item in the family budget. Forty-live per cent, ol the families used up more than half of their income in this way; some of them more than 80 per cent. Yet the small amount spent for food per person in the lowest-income groups—less than Id a day in some instances —was among the most striking results obtained by the study. The adequacy of such a diet may be questioned, Mr. Gamble points out, but there appears to be little doubt that a great many Chinese families subsist on something like this level. It is generally supposed that all Chinese live on rice. In many parts of the country, however, rice is a luxury which only the comparatively wealthy classes can afford as a regular diet. In Peking wheat flour is the principal food of the average workingclass family. Northern Chinese use rice chiefly in connection with New Year feasts and other celebrations. In all but the highest-income groups studied by Mr. Gamble the largest proportion of the food money was spent on flour; among the higher groups a rapid increase in the proportion of rice meal, and fruit was noted.

Pork was the principal meat item. Mutton also was generally used: beef, though much cheaper. less often. Chicken was bought, by only 41 pn cent, of the families. Eggs were purchased by 213 families out of the 283, shrimps by 278. and fish by 116. Milk, which in Peking is a relatively expensive food, was bought by only forty families, mostly in the largcr-income groups. Cabbage was the most popular vegetable; only ten families bought potatoes. Fruit figured hut se'dom in the diet of families with small incomes; the average annual expenditure was only 4£d in Tp lowest group, but increased rapidly with expansion of the family income. 1/- A YEAR FOR CLOTHES Lancashire merchants concerned with the potentialities of the piece-

goods market in China may well ponder the figures relating to expenditure on clothing. The total annual expenditure per person worked out at only about 15/- for the entire group, the average varying from 1/- a year in the lowest-income group to £3/15/- a year in the highest. Seven families, including those of a clerk and a teacher, who might be expected to make some effort to keep up appearances, reported expenditure of less than 1/for clothing during the year. The minimum annual expenditure per family reported was the equivalent of 3d; the maximum was £62, this including the amount spent for clothes for the wedding of one son and the engagement of another. Illustrating the squalid conditions under which the majority of Chinese ' live in the larger cities, the survey showed lhat 124 families, representing 44 per cent, of the total number, were living in only one room. In four of these families seven persons were living in one room, and 37 families had five or more persons of various ages and sexes living in one room. All of these families had incomes between 12/6 and £2/10/- a month. The average was between three and four persons per room for families with in-come,-i of less than 7/6 a week. Sixty of the families lived in their own bonzes, or might have don» if they had go chosen —nine families with incomes of less than 3d/- a month turned out to nc property-owners. Where rents weie paid they averaged about £l/5/per family per year, or a little more

than 2/- a month. The average annual expenditure for ■ heat, light, and water per family was £3/4/-. In the lowest-income group these three items cost little more than £1 for the whole year. Kerosene was the chief source of light for the poorer, families and was used to some extent by all of them. Electricity was used by about one-third of the families with larger incomes. Only four had telephones. No attempt was made to study the literacy of the families included in the survey, but it was considered that the number buying newspapers during the year (47 per cent.) was possibly a fair index, at any rate in the case of the older generation. About one-fourth of the children on school age attended school at some time during the year. Every family spent something for health, but for many the amounts were infinitesimal. The total for the year averaged only 1/6 in the lowest-income group. I All but three families spent some-1 thing for recreation and entertain-; ment, under which heading wine, tobacco, snuff. toys, athletics, theatre tickets, photographs, presents, tips, gambling losses, and feasts were included.