AGE PENSIONERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24244, 9 April 1942, Page 4

AGE PENSIONERS

Sir,— Reading a letter by "O-AJrV 1 in Tuesday's Herald one is prompted to reflect on the, rising cost of living as it affects those whose incomes aw fixed or incapable of much expansion. Recently the Auckland; price ipr milk was advanced by Id per quart, making an inflation of 40 per cent sinca the Milk Council originally raised Ha price to 5d with assurances that when zoning was given full effect prices would be reviewed and revised. They were. Revised up, by the invidious pro» cess of advancing by Id and then, with virtuous gestures and assurance! re conserving consumers' interests, deduced by id. This procedure had only to be repeated a few times to doubla the price as it stood before the blessings inaugurated by the council began to flow. \*?Jf

Such inflation creates the breedingground for an economic slump; for slumps eventuate only when prices are abnormal, and not when they owe been intelligently controlled for-ias public weal, or. alternately, allowed to fall, as well as rise, under tha ialftence of supply and demand, . Raising pensions will not check pricerise; rather the reverse, and high prices tend to destroy our heaufira| illusion of "this other Eden—demi-Para. dise." E. S. C. Coebiganv •