THE COST OF LIVING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13324, 2 November 1906, Page 8

THE COST OF LIVING.

Sir, The Christchurch Trades and Labour Council have sent a remarkable letter to the Manchester Guardian and 25 of the leading newspapers of Great Britain and Ireland. As this letter is on similar lines to the letter the Auckland Trades and Labour Council decided to send some time ago I may be allowed to make some observations thereon. The letter starts out with a remarkable admission, viz., that although New Zealand is ahead of every-other country in its labour laws it is powerless to prevent the operation of nature's law of supply and demand, ft would be well to bear this in mind at election times when we arc urged to believe that, "the great Liberal party "are competent to order everything as they wish, if we only trust them far enough. The next paragraph states that when the letter was written Nov/ Zealand was in the throes of a severe depression owing to the inrush of artisans from Great Britain and Australia. Tho most charitable comment on this paragraph is the one made by Mark Twain when he was reported to be dead; he said the report was slightly exaggerated." Then follows a ' statement of the ruling rate of wages in New Zealand with the cost of house rent and provisions, with sundry conelusions that are more dexterous than honest. Trades unionists are adepts in stating half a truth. They are never tired of telling us that tire cost of living has gone up very much during the last few years, but they do not show very clearly in what way living has advanced so much. They tell us rents have advanced very much, 'but they are silent about the relative value and accommodation of houses of the present dav compared to what they were 20 to ,30 vears ago. In the year 1879 I worked as a'carpenter in Auckland, and I lived in a four-roomed cottage in Ponsonby Road alongside the Western Park, the rent of which was 10s per week. _ This house was comfortably enough finished inside for a working man, but compared to the present day house occupied by a carpenter would be considered very 'poor indeed. It had no register grate or stove. There was no water supply, save a 400 gallon tank, no bathroom, no washhouse with copper, no gas, and no drainage, and the necessary offices outside were of the most primitive character. The whole cost of a house of this kind in those days, including allotment, would not exceed £200 Compare this with the present-day house of six or seven rooms, with octagon windows, the sashes all double hung, having bathroom and sink, with wash-house and boiler, and having water and' gas laid on, the whole connected with the drainage system. A modern house of this kind cannot be erected under from £350 to £450, and the land is much dearer too, and the rent will range from 12s to 16s per week. With regard to provisions: From the year 1879 to 1884 all he staple articles of food were dearer than they are to-day. From 1879 to the end of 1883 the building trades were fairly brisk. At the end of 1883 there was a mild boom, but at Christmas the bubble burst, and for many years afterwards carpenters and other tradesmen were glad to work for anything they could get. Of course, house rent and provisions came down very much during the depression, and so did the wages. About 1894 things began gradually to improve, until at the present time work is perhaps more plentiful and better paid than at any period in the history of the colony. If those statements of mine are near the truth and I challenge the Trades and Labour Council to

! disprove them—then why this persistent and | misleading talk about,the extra cost of living at the present time? Has the taste for a more expensive manner of living nothing to do with this clamorous agitation? When I was working in Auckland the full working rig of a carpenter would be highly appraised at 30s, but that would hardly pay for the long-pointed tan shoes of the present-day carpenter. j'ho Auckland Tramways earned over £100,000 last year, the greater part of which is paid by the working man. A piano in a working man's house in my time was a rarity but what of the present day with tho flash pianos and furniture, much of it on the time-payment system; and I don't think that strolling actors and dancers have much to complain of in the matter of liberal patronage, not to mention the racecourse and ' long-sleevers." I do not wish to see a return of the pinching days; but in the name of common honesty let the Trades and Labour Council put its finger on the spot where the cost of living has gone up, and not blame it on provisions and house rents, which is not true. Drury. JOSEPH FLANAGAN.