THE H.B. TRIBUNE. THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1912. THE COST OF LIVING.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 18, 4 January 1912, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1912. THE COST OF LIVING.

Yesterday wc published a resume cf the figures prepared by the federal statistician (Mr. G. 'H. Knibbs) regarding the cost of living in Australia. The statistics are not claimed to be complete, but it appears reasonable io accept the figures as a fair indication of how the people of the Commonwealth live. I. nfortunateh the effort of the department to obtain the fullest possible information was not readilly responded to by the people, hence the figures are based upon such material as came to hand. Mr. Knibbs issued T5OO household-account books to families throughout tire Commonwealth in which the recipients were asked to record particular's of income and expenditure for a period cf 12 months. In response tie only received back 212 bocks out of the 1500 and all these were not completely filled in. Such as it, is the information is held to be useful. The average weekly incomes of the 212 families are given as £6'7'll for families of over four members, and £6/16'4 for families ot four' and under having incomes cf over £200; while the average income of families of over tour, with an income of £2OO and under is £3/l/li, and of four member s and under £2 18 5. The average weekly expenditure in the case of families having incomes of ovet £2OO. with a family of over four members, is averaged at £5'12,-li; anti for feur members and tinder at £*»2's{. With families having incomes cf £2OO and under, the figures me given as £2 15 7 and £2-T3 Z OJ. Taking the families with incomes cf over £2OO and over four members. Mr. Knibbs gives the average weekly expenditure as £5 12 7, ; tor families having incomes of over £2OO and a membership of four and under. £5 2 5. 1 ;. 'Those with incomes cf £2OO and under, with over four m a family, were averaged at £2 15. < per week, and families of four anil under at £2 13 bi. ft will have been seen from the analysis published veiiteidav thai leaving out "other items" the expenditure upon food amounts to 29 per cent. Housing 13.70 per cent, comes next : clothing 12.72 per cent, and fuel and light 3.16 per cem. Commenting on these figures the statistician says: —As regards expenditure on housing, clothing. and fuel and light, the divergencies in the percentages for the several triotipes. classed according to income and size of family, are not verv marked, whereas the percentages expended on food range from 22 to ever 40. being naturally higher in the Larger family groups. The expenditure ’ ; n food is again relativelv rmuh larger in the smaller income giotip. indicating that economies in ex pen. lit u io are primarily effected in regard to matteis other than food.

It is not unlikely, indeed, that ex-1 penditure on food alone furnishes a} irtit- indication of the standard of material well-being. The more limited the resources of the individual, the. less must his consumption be. and the coarser the quality of his fem!. in Germany anthropometrical measurements have resulted in showing that the typical man of the poorer classes, by reason of the nutritive inferiority of his food, is neither so corpulent nor so heavy as the typical man of other classes. One cannot help being struck with the larger percentage of the “other item” schedule of the return. This expenditure it will be seen averages 40.82 per cent, of the total income and at first glance indicates extravagance in feome direction. But, making allowance for the strong temptation to put an undue burden upon the sundry account to avoid the bother of careful classification, the investigations do not reveal any marked waste upon what may be termed luxuries. Dealing with this phase Mr. Knibhs observes: “the greatest outlay is again in an unspecified lump, with next to it insurance, which is followed in the order named by fares, medical expenses, other groceries not food, rates and taxes, education and school materials, contributions to benefit societies and sports and amusements (equal), alcoholic beverages, tobacco, cigars, etc., and nonalcoholic beverages. In regard to alcoholic beverages, it appears that no less than 88 out-of the 212 families were teetotallers. Of the balance 42 families spent on this item an average amount of less than 3d per family per week, while there are only 15 families entered as spending over 2 ; - each week. Of the last number nine exceeded 3'- each per week, and three exceeded 5/- a week. On non-alcoholic beveiager, the average weekly expenditure per family is only 21d, while the average expenditure on spoils and amusements is also very low, viz.. I'll. per week, 21 families returning no expenditure under this heading. Ex-penditure-c-n tobacco is also small, the weekly average per family being 6d. There are only 81 families with a weekly expenditure in excess of that sum, -while 103 families returned no expenditute on this item. The relatively high expenditure on insurance and contributions to benefit societies, amounting together to G. 13 per cent, on the total expenditure, indicates thrift and economy.” From the face of these figures it would appear that Mr. Knibbs is justified in claiming that they indicate thrift and economy, but it is [ more than likely that the thrifty and j economical families are the only ones who have taken the trouble to keep or send in returns. It is not possible to deduce a direct comparison from these figures with other countries as the information has been collected upon different lines, though certain ratios of expenditure are confirmed by the Australian figures. In America the inquiry was limited to working-class families, while in Germany the average incomes are much lower than in Australia or the United States. A comparison of the general percentage distribution of expenditure tn these countries is shown by Mr. Knibbs in a table as follows : — Housing Food Fuel-Cltlig Other light. exp’tui-e Australia 13.i0 29.30 3.4 G 12.72 -!0.c2 U.S. (inquiry 1902) 17.10 3G.-15 5.03 1-5.72 20.4 u Germany (inquiry 1907) 11.00 30.31 3.12 14.91 30.70 ft would be interesting and decidedly useful if the Statistical department of New Zealand could supply similar information. With a lesser area to cover it should not be difficult to obtain faiily reliable information.