THEN AND NOW.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5918, 13 February 1880, Page 6

THEN AND NOW.

There lie before me, says the author of “London Town Talk” i n Melbourne Argus , two annual reports of one of tne largest and most important of the London clubs. The interval between them is 13 years —or more than half a generation and a comparison between them would, it might bo imagined, exhibit with some significance the changes that have taken place during that period in the cost of living, and even to some extent in the habits of social life. As tho expenditure per annum for 1878 is considerably more than £30,000, the data for founding such a comparison is certainly upon a sumciently broad basis, while the details leave nothing to be desired in respect to particularity. The number of members is of course in each case identical, as also the terms of subscription, so that the parallel should be pretty compete. All housewives will doubtless say, 1 You will find the cost of provisions very different, and so we do; but the advantage, strange to say, is on the side of the moderns, and teat to the extent of nearly £3OOO. In round numbers, indeed, they cost nearly athird less last year than they did in 1865. How muon of this may be due to the facilities transit or to the failure of members’ appetites _wo cannot say, but there are the figures, and tney certainly strike one with some surprise. In servants’ wages, again, one would have expected to see a large increase, whereas the increase of expenditure last year for this item as compared with that for 1865, is less than ten per cent. The cost of gas (as indeed might be foreseen) was considerably more of old than at present, but also of oil and of wax candles, notwithstanding that quite as much of these latter items are now used in the club as formerly. The newspaper Bill for 1865 is also heavier, not of course that nearly so many were taken in as were taken last year, but from their comparative dearness. The cost of coals was 30 per cent higher than at the earlier date, while the item for ice in 1865 is much larger than for 1878, notwithstanding that the consumption has so immensely increased, and that what was then more or less a luxury is now a necessary, and is used by many with every meal. Without going into the articles of food, which of course are not given in the reports, such as oysters, for example, it is indeed impossible to say what is dearer “ now ” than “then,” for on the general view, strange as it may appear, everything seems cheaper. In the items of income some curious facts disclose themselves. The amount received from members for wine (drunk of course on the premises) half a generation ago was double what it was last year, the figures being in round numbers £6OOO against £3OOO. This should comfort the heart of Sir Wilfrid Lawson. On the other hand, what should open the eyes of those foolish people who confuse tobacco smoking with drinking is, that while the consumption of has so immensely decreased that of cigars has increased to the extent of 25 per cent. The fact is (only few anti-tobacconists care for facts, but only for their own theories) that, though a wine-bibber may smoke, no habitual smoker is a winebibber, The amount now received for cards is no less than three times what it was in the earlier year, which, since only whist is played, shows how greatly more popular that game has become, especially since cards are cheaper, and there are in these days so many whist clubs, which naturally tend to draw away members from the card-room of the ordinary club. The amounts received from billiards in the two years are absolutely identical, but from this it is difficult to draw any deduction, the number of billiard-rooms being of necessity the same even if the taste for that amusement.may have increased. Among the miscellaneous items of expenditure, what strikes an outsider, or one familiar with commercial life where steel pens only are in use, as enormous, is that for “quill pens and re-making old ones,” which stands at £SO, If geese are no dearer, why should goose-quills be? There is ho such item at all in the earlier report, though we conclude quill pens must have been much more in fashion. On the other hand, it is very satisfactory that whereas in 1865 the charge for toothpicks is £12125, it is now but half that sum. This surely must be a proof that the science of dentistry is improving ; unless indeed one is to suppose that it has so deteriorated that the members of the club have only half as many teeth as they had formerly. Another little item is significant of a decaying taste. The expenditure for snuff last year was only about £4; in 1865 it was £lO, and in a report 10 years earlier (when the number of members too was less) we are informed that it was set down at £32, The chief, interest, however, and the only public one that belongs to the matter, is that our examination of the reports tends to show that the outcry heard on all sides about the enormous increase in the price of food during the last decade is unfounded.