MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1920. THE RISE IN PRICES.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1511, 10 March 1920, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1920. THE RISE IN PRICES.

An interesting feature of the report of the Eailway Wages Board is the set of figures furnished by the Acting-Gov-ernment Statistician, intended to supply the deficiencies in the cost of living statistics hitherto compiled by the Statistician’s Department. In the past these have been confined, so far as household expenditure is concerned, to food, rent, fviel and light. Ai more or less approximate estimate has now been given of the increase in the cost of clothing and of the miscellaneous other items which comprise the average household budget. Taking the basis given in the report, in which the cost of clothing is estimated to have risen ,125 per cent., and in which miscellaneous items are estimated to have increased at half the rate of the combined groups of food, rent, fuel, lighting and clothing, it is possible to present what may be taken as a fairly accurate estimate of the cost of living during the war period. The increases in prices, computed on the above-men-tioned basis, may be set forth as forlows:— Percentage Increase Items. of in prices expenditure, per cent. Clothing . . 13 125.0 Food, rent, fuel and lighting 59 ,37.8 Other items .. 28 20.4 All above items 100 46.9 Upon this basis it may be computed that the sovereign has depreciated 31.9 per cent., and is now worth 13s 710 com-

pared with July, IL-14, a figure which compares fairly closely with the Government Statistician’s estimate based on a wide range of wholesale prices of commodities, arid not on the household budget. The Statistician’s latest estimate on the wholesale price basis was 13s l]d in December last.