Life in South Africa

Hutt News, Volume XXII, Issue 2, 23 June 1948, Page 12

Life in South Africa

NEW ZEALANDER'S VIEWS COMPARISON OF PRICES ; A New Zealand woman who recently went to South Africa writes lrom Johannesburg: “It Is every bit as difficult to find a place to live here as it is in New Zealand. Wages are high on the whole, but they need to be, as the cost of living is not cheap, though I don’t think prices are continuing to rise as they are in New Zealand, and many things are cheaper — dress materials, household linen, and nylon stockings for instance. I bought two pairs of nylons for 11/10 the other day and the best are not more than about 16/-. “The cheaper things are somewhat offset by 2/6 a lb for butter, which is not as nice as ours, also high prices for meat; , I paid 2/6 for 21b of stewing steak the other day. Pictures (you call / them Bioscopes here, don’t ask me wny) are also a good deal dearer. At the suburban theatres you can get In the stalls for 2/7, but similar stalls in one of the bigger city theatres was 4/11.

Price of Clothes

“There are some very cheap clothes (ready-mades) about, but mostly these are the ones which are going out of fashion, find the firms want to quit them while the going is good, I think. Anything ‘New Look’ is pricy, and some of them out of all reason—they want 18 and 20 guineas for quite simple-looking Jersey cloths and light wools, etc. Shoes are also high in price, and don’t look anything special in quality.

“It doesn’t seem to matter much what you wear at the moment, because you see all styles and lengths on the streets. Women arc taking their time in changing over to the ‘New Look,’ and with prices what they are I am not surprised. But if one could make one’s own clothes one could dress very cheaply, as materiails are definitely lower in price, and very nice ones loo.’’