THE COST OF LIVING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11109, 25 October 1907, Page 2

THE COST OF LIVING.

*. (Special to Herald.) v , DUNEDIN, this day. TJio. master bakers held a meeting yes- • terday, when the price of bread -was again considered. It was decided, however, not to increase the price at present, though some were m favor of this being done. Onions have risen £4 10s a ton since Monday, the selling prices now being £11. The advance is attributed to the recent disorganisation of the San Francisco service. There is now no way of getting onions from America direct. Since the refrigerating space required, is not available, everything m the produce i line is bringing exceptional prices just now. A line of wheat was yesterday sold here at the record price of 5s 9d per bushel (on trucks, sacks extra). It.i& said that the top price has not yet been reached. The Sydney Morning Herald says that Messrs Burns, .Philp and Go., Ltd., have received cable news from the\ Ogilvie Flour Mills Oompauy, Ltd., Winnipeg and Montreal, Canada, for whom they act as agents m Australasia, advising that the latest estimates of the crops m the northwestern districts set the yield down at 60 to 65 million bushel?. Of this quantity, the message states, 35,000,000 is of good milling quality, all of which will be required by Canadian millers. Compared with last season's returns, these figures show a shrinkage of 30 to 35 million bushel*. , ' A considerable amount of space was devoted by the Wellington Post on Tuesday discussing the , question of the increased cost of living. Incidentally, the Post remarks as the results of its inquiries: — Some distinct parties were, met with, some said uncompromisingly that the cost of living had increased all round, others said that frugal people could live as cheaply m New Zealand now as at any time m the history of the country. There were those who thought the cost of living was a little dearer now than it used to be, but that the difference was more than made up by increase *of wages, and some who said that only a few lines were dearer and that there were compensations for these m the matters of better quality and healthier nature. "Too much expenditure is made on unnecessary things," said one critic. "Too much train riding, too much 'Mother Gooso.' As a people, we are run into extravagant ways, and we want putting straight. Only last week a man m a good situation cried to me about the increased price of bread. How was he to pay it, having only a yearly salary, which never expanded to meet increased prices? He gets £250 a year. I might say the increased price of bread meant afiout eight-pence or sixpence a week to him, and he was one of the two hundred who blocked Lambton Quay for an hour waiting to rush the booking oHice for reserved seat tickets for 'Mother Goose.' Only a crown a time. We take a tram if we want to go two hundred yards, we have needless expenses that our fathers never thought of. We are less healthy, less wealthy, and less satisfied than they were, though we have greater opportunities, throw away pounds on a horse race and growl at an. extra half-crown on the butcher's bill, growl at sixpence extra for the baker and spend ten shillings a week on the play. That's the way of it. and it seems' to me wo want our present plan reniodclled altogether."