COST OF LIVING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10559, 9 April 1920, Page 5

COST OF LIVING

THE OFFICIAL FIGURES ARE THEY OBTAINED FROM IMPARTIAL SOURCES? A deputation from the Public Service Association which waited on tho Public Service Commissioner last month to discuss salaries and other matters drew the Commissioner’s attention to certain features of the government Statistician’s figures relating to the ■cost of living. Rents, in AVollington, for instance, were given as averaging 10s 3d per week for a five-roomed house. It was impossible to rent such a house in Wellington at that rental. In regard to the quotations of retail prices, a member of tho deputation said: “AVo jjnow perfectly well that these figures are got applicable to the ordinary consumer’s conditions —-that h e has got to pay more. If he goes to a shop to buy an article ho has to pay a little more than the tradesman would report even to the Government Statistician.” In th© course of further discussion the Commissioner revealed tho interesting fact that tho Government Statistician had prepared for him some months ago a complete computation of the increase in the cost of living as at April Ist, 1919. A similar computation, for a later date, seems to have been made for the Railway Wages Board for the purpose of computing the new bonus. Commenting on the above tho ‘‘Lyttelton Times” says:—The Commissioner apparently had not implicit faith in the Government Statistician’s figures, for he suggested that a representative hoard should be set up to ascertain exactly the increase in the cost of living and provide a basic wage formula which could be used in respect to all public services. It is to be doubted, however, whether that is necessary. It is a question of fact, and the Government Statistician should, prima facie, be the best equipped person .to settle it. Unfortunately it has been shown that the Statistical Department does not obtain its facts from unbiased and impartial sources, and public confidence iu the official figures has been shaken. This being the case, it seems highly desirable that the complete rang© of price calculations as privately supplied on occasion by the Statistician should be published, so that they may be compared with the results of everyday experience. If they were-based on figures supplied "by retailere their value as a wage basis might reasonably be questioned.