THE COST OF LIVING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10060, 3 May 1915, Page 3

THE COST OF LIVING.

AN INTERESTING ANALYSIS. ;i jyift/1 IWELLINGTANs *s« 1(firing evidence at the Arbitration Court to-d«y, Dr. MolftatfJL Ueaß) with the relative cost of living to-day and in 1875. Witness said he had made a close study of the wholesale prices of goods. The prices last year and prior to the war were not as high as in 1875, but were about 5 per cent lower. It was about the year 1875 that the wholesale prices of most commodities began to fall all over the world. Towards the end of a long period of prosperous times, retail prices, i.e. the cost of living, increased faster than the wholesale prices, but in a time like the present, wholesale prices seemed to increase much faster thantfhe retail prices. If any reason could be assigned for this he would say it was that, towards the end of prosperous times, people had money to spend, and they were not critical of retail prices, but in a time like the present the shopkeeper was under the public eye more than the wholesale dealer. Wholesale prices had increased twice as rapidly as retail prices since the war—2o per cent as against 9 per cent. The rise had been chiefly in farm produce. Before the war broke out farm produce had reached the highest level since 1879.