THE COST OF LIVING

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6606, 24 August 1908, Page 4

THE COST OF LIVING

Some day, though probably not for a long time yet, tho House of Representatives in New Zealand will discuss in earnost a motion bearing resemblance to that submitted to the Legislative Council by the Hon. J. Barr, the debate on which now stands adjourned. Mr Barr’s motion is that the Government should take into consideration tho devising of some further practical measures for lessening tho cost of living on married men as compared with tho unmarried, that tho position of those with a family should be especially considered, so that the rearing of children may bo looked forward to with loss anxiety than at present and parenthood thereby encouraged. In bringing this question forward, Mr Barr has done good service, for there is probably no matter so much discussed among tho married wage-earners of tho Dominion as tho cost of living. That it has increased considerably during late years is undoubted, notwithstanding the production of ancient grocer’s bills and other irrelevant evidence to show the contrary. Though some interested individuals try to prove that living is not so expensive now as it was a generation ago, nobody takes them seriously. Tho, tables and* comparisons that are produced to show tho fallacy of the popular belief are valueless, for “living ” in tho popular sense means something more than payment of tho minimum charges of a grocer or the purchase of clothing at bargain sales. It costs more to live now than it did tw'enty-five years ago, because, for one thing, people want more, for another the rent problem has become a very ! real and pressing burden. The gene- [ ral idea of standard of comfort has I been raised considerably. It may he 1 that people live extravagantly. Even if this be granted, it leads to no conclusion. The average artisan does not earn £3 per week. It seems useless to tell such a man that ho is “spending too much ” if he complains that after paying perhaps a third of his income in rent ho finds the remainder of his wages insufficient for the ordinary requirements of a growing family in the direction of food and clothing, dearly it is a futility to gay "Increase wages ” whenever the economic pressure on the consumer becomes heavy. Wages can bo increased to a certain point, State action can do something for a time, But it is the veriest moonshine to suppose that tho wages fund can be indefinitely increased without the people at whose expense the operation i is done “ making good” in some J way. The people may shift a burden on to capital easily enough, but, so fluid and sensitive is money, that before six months are over the people will probably be again bearing part of tho burden, and by the end of a year will certainly have it all, and more, back again on thoir shoulders. Value as purchasing power is the only test of the wages fund. In bringing his motion forward, Mr Barr spoke in a very interesting and unpractical way. He was interesting because tho subject is important, and unpractical because his resolution bristles with difficulty. We are disposed to think that it hardly conveys what Mr Barr wants to bring to notice, though it must bo confessed that anything is possible to a man who seriously proposes that there should he statutory preference of employment to married men. This shows an abiding faith in an Act of Parliament that is positively pathetic and an incredible belief in the simplicity of the Legislature. Can it bo possible, one wonders, that Mr Barr actually believes any Minister could place before Parliament such a proposal as this and survive? Does ho believe that any candidate for election who declared himself in favour of such an outrageously crude proposal would have the slightest chance of return? Poar sibly he does entertain such child-like ideas, but there cannot be many other people who do. Another of Mr Barr s remedies is to “ take the medical profession under the wing of the State,” and a third is to buy up more land for workers’ homes. Unfortunately, Mr Barr has not told us how this is going to help the general taxpayer, for undoubtedly the doctors will have to get their fees from somebody’s pocket and the homes have to be paid for. Of,

the moral sentiments expressed by Mr Barr it is impossible to speak too highly. Tho practical part of his) speech—if there was any—was terribly | shaky. When he came to tho question of parenthood he seemed to part company with tho rest of his motion. This was inevitable, for there Mr Barr is up against this hard fact that neither in this country or any other under the sun is it the people most “ hard-up who fail to do their duty in this respect. It is tho poor fathers and poor mothers of tho world who maintain every rscc —mid* "by & strung® iionj* liavo given to it its brightest on) amonts. When Parliament does seek to grapple in earnest with this question it will find that the task will carry it right down to tho root of our system of direct and indirect taxation. The remedy, if one there bo, is clearly there, not in making any attempt to draft off into separate economic pens tho married and tho single. Men must bo unmarried at some stage of their development, and when they marry they must hear tho responsibilities of tho married state. Tho Now Zealand democracy has, however, a long way to go and many things to learn before the problem that has been raised by Mr Barr will bo solved. It has got to realise, first of all, tho exact meaning of “ cost of living. ’