COST OF LIVING

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 5 April 1926, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

PRICES OF FOODSTUFFS.

STATISTICIAN’S REVIEW. C THE FAMILY EXPENDITURE. (By Telegraph —Special to the Star.) WELLINGTON, April 3. The Government Statistician oontinues to make comparisons of the cost of living with prices ruling before the war. He shows that the retail prices index (Dominion weighted average) for the three food groups (groceries, dairy produce and meat) as at February 15 was 1634 (taking the average prices for the four chief centres during the years 1909-13 as 1000), involving a fall of 1§ points as with the corresponding index for. the preceding month, and showing a -price level of 52.7 per cent, above that for July, 1914, viz., 1070. „ nl the groceries’ group, the fall of 43 points has been occasioned mainly by a drop in the price of potatoes. The rise of 38 points in the dairy produce group is occasioned mainly by increases in egg prices. The fall in meat whch commenced last November continues, but at a diminished -rate, a drop of nine points only. being, recorded in February. The 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 the same month last year, the only, noteworthy decrease in this group being, recorded in the case of sugar, the price for which has fallen considerably since* Februarj' 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 a definite-increase all round, and prices for mutton, showing a slight increase in most towns." “The expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the total expenditure of the average New'Zealand household,” .states the Government Statistician. There is an increase for “all groups,” the retail price level being 62.4 per ceut. over the level , of July, 1914.

Fuel an-d light have shown the greatest increase since July, 1914, followed very closely by rent and miscel- 1 laneous items. Groceries, cloths 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. A 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 miscellanequs group shows a fall of 11 points, a slight rise in furnishings being more than offset by a fall in crockery, while the remaining '.subgroups of the miscellaneous group" have exhibited practically stationary' price conditions. Fuel and light have shown little movement during the past quarter, though a general tendency is a rising -one.

Statistics of house rents are collected annually only. The results of the February collection shoiy that the rate of increase in the cost of housing, a cost which has been rising continually since the outbreak of war,‘is nowslackening somewhat. Ten out of 25 towns considered actually show falls in the rent index number for February, as compared with that for August last year, but in most of the larger centres the rise continues. - . The Statistician gives the following interesting table -showing liow far £1 will go to-day in tlic purchasing of commodities when a comparison, is made with July, 1914. These .figures are the average for the Dominion generally, and are. to December, 1925. Latest, available groceries, 11s lid: dairy produce, 13s 9fd; meat, 13s 8d: rent, 11s 84d; fuel and light, lls 54d: clothes and boots 12s 6d; all groups* 12 s 23d. ' b U