STANDARD OF LIVING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 251, 18 September 1930, Page 5

STANDARD OF LIVING.

TOO HIGH. At the annual meeting of Were’s Investment Trust, Ltd., in Melbourne on September 8, -the chairman of directors, in. his address to shareholders, made the following interesting remarks: “Generally, since the war, people have become accustomed to a standard of living which is well above pre-war level, and they show no inclination to five up any of the amenities of life. he young people of to-day are those who have no personal recollection of the war; they missed its hardships and they regard modern facilities as part of their inherited environment, of which they are entitled to avail themselves as a matter of right.' Their elders, on the other hand, have displayed a strong disinclination to forego their luxuries to which they have become accustomed. In other words, the public have continued to spend freely on social amenities and objects which have been raised to the level of necessities. Nevertheless, I venture to say that the next twelve months will witness the application, on a wide scale, of voluntary restriction of personal expenditure. In the long run, the natural result of more economic habits on the part of the public should be to accelerate the downward trend in retail prices and thus, by increasing the relative value of real wages, to induce the conditions which would bring nearer an improvement in our national fortunes. ... If the trying experience teaches us the virtues of prudent finance, wise spending, and the closer co-operation of all sections for the common good, then the awakening will prove of inestimable benefit to us as a nation.”