COST OF LIVING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19041, 15 June 1936, Page 4

COST OF LIVING

RISE ANTICIPATED

CAUSES DISCUSSED An early and general rise in the cost of living is indicated in more ways than one. This rise, which people are beginning to sense already, is due to several causes, states the Dominion. One of these causes is the emergence from the depression to better times all round, with an appreciation in the price of our primary products. A secondary cause is the comparative fluidity of money to-day as against the static con<dition of a couple of years ago. But. perhaps the most potent cause of the rise in the cost of living is recent legislation passed by the Government, notably that affecting wages and hours of employment.

Such vital matters have an almost immediate repercussion, as tradespeople cannot increase wages and givo shorter hours, without seeking the only compensating avenue of higher prices.

Prices are likely to go up in throe quarters, the first of which is the primary producer, who has to pay more for farm labour and shorten the hours of employment to his hands j secondly, the manufacturer, who is faced' with coYresponding liabilities; and thirdly, the store-keeping retailer. Sb the consumer will willy-nilly have to face all three rises in the cost of purchases, rises that cannot he avoided.