KEEP DOWN WAGES.

NZ Truth, Issue 98, 4 May 1907, Page 4

KEEP DOWN WAGES.

How to Live on £2 per Week*

Miss Kirk, the lady visitor on the staff of the Benevolent Institution, recently laid before the Benevolent! Trustees a statement which she. had compiled to ■• show how it was possille for a married man with a small family to live upon £2 per week. Here is how she apportions out the two quid. Rent lls, coal and coke Is,, milk 2s 4-d, butter Is, candles and matches 4d, newspaper bd, tread 2s 3d, rice 2d, tea yd, vegetables 2s. meat ss, sugar 7d, jsoap sd, jam 6d, waShing soda I'd, Lacon 3d, salt l^d, pepper ld,« fruit (bananas) 4d, cornflour 3-frd, bactn sd, "salt l£d, pepper Id, haricot beans M, Quaker oat's 44<d, ,oatina,,Cd, flour 3d, apples 2^d. Totilj £1 I.os 9d, leaving a balance of 9 s 3d for the' purchase of clothing or otfer necessary articles. How happy a couple with say only one child would be if they kept to that list, and how well they could dress with the. remaining 9s 3d per week. No. allowance made for sickness or recreation. Tea is the sole' drink. No ctcoa or coffee for a change,, and as for beer and spirits; the very mention of it would mean ruin. Theire must be, no theatres, no holidays, no riding m;. the tram hn wet days, r o money m the plate on Sundays, or a rim to the Hutt or elsewhere for health's sake. No lit-, erature outside the daily paper, no pictures, no letters to friends (stamps, envelopes, and writine; paper cost money), no toy s^ for the children, no night-cap for dad ff. he feels a bit wankey afteir Ms da"'s toi.L and no pipe, aiid no glass of stout for Mum if she is off color. Just plsfin food, and not too much of it : iust tea three times a day. Head the paper after tea, and «ro to bed. Lay m bed, and loaf round m Sim-day because it costs money to p-o out. What a delightful picture. ■What <*v f'reary colorless life. What ambitions, what aims, or what understanding of life can such people have ? What sort of children *re tW likely to rear. Ryivtjrce m . the slum's of London could not be move cheerl ss. .And-ynt we persist m calling this "G-od's Own f~' oun tn\" when there am hundreds of citizens who have tr> live this life, while a henevol r nt I'd? noin J s out that it cm Vo done r ui''e. easily.