A HOUSEWIFE'S PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24606, 14 May 1941, Page 10

A HOUSEWIFE'S PROBLEMS

TO THE EDITOR

\ Sir,—At the present time there are : so many rumours in circulation regarding the municipal elections that it is hard fo know what to believe. As one , housewife, who finds it difficult to meet the ever-increasing cost, of keeping the home supplied with the necessaries of life, it is pleasing to me to read that Dr McMillan and other members of the Labour party who are candidates are anxious to assist us by reducing electricity, rates and other charges. What confuses us is the knowledge that Dr McMillan and other members of the Labour Party in Parliament did not raise their voices against legislation that was bound to place. hardships upon parents. A few instances of how such legislation affects those living in the suburbs can be gleaned from the writer's experience. When a complaint was made to the grocer that lemons were too dear at five for one shilling, he stated that an inspector called at his shop and informed him that to sell them so was illegal. In future he must sell them four for elevenpence. Our fruiterer asserted that he was prevented from buying a case of apples from his father's orchard, and our carter, when the complaint was made that the charge of 2s 9d for a box of sundries was exhorbitant when it cost only one shilling, replied that he could not charge less as in his pocket he carried an official price list, and he broke the law if he charged the old price. We also remember Dr McMillan defending the heavy death duties legislation by saving that our families did not earn their inheritance. How he knows that families do not assist to build up a fund that they may find homes for themselves in the future is a mystery. 'We would also be pleased to know, if it is true that Mr Cox's milk-zoning scheme * will be put into operation. Dr McMillan's election advertisement says that he is the man who gets things done. If that is so. he has shown a strange way of assisting us when he has used his influence in Parliament to impose such conditions upon parents. It is all so confusing that I hope he will explain these perplexing matters.—l am, etc., A Worried Matron. • Dunedin, May 10.