COST OF LIVING IN FRANCE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3303, 2 November 1883, Page 3

COST OF LIVING IN FRANCE.

The cost of living in France has been ( omouied by M. Arnvngaud, who took the 'expenditures of 16 working-class families in the town of Mnlhonee, Alsace. Similar expanses might be a li.tle over or a little under this estimate in other districts in France, hut, upon the whole, the results may be accepbd as a fair average, The 16 families tabulated by M. Armangaud were chosen from different classes of workmen, and their exoen. dituro varied trom £45 per annum. House accommodation as a rule, swallowed up i 5 per cent of the total expenditure, clothing 16 per cent, and food 61 per cent, 8 per cent being reserved for misceHan -ons purposes. In the matter of food the highest expenditure registered was 72 per cent, and the item of expenditure was thus distributed: 33 per cent was for bread, 14 per cent for meat, 13 per cent for milk, 24 per cent for groceries, and 16 per cent for miscellaneous ailiments. The greatest expenditure upon breed in any case was 48 per cent. It was thus seen that the average expenditure of these 16 working-class families of Mulhouse upon bread wnsa little over one-fifth of their total expenditure. This being the case in (he average, and the greatest expenditure being about one-third of the total expenditure of families, it will be seen that, taking these figures as fairly representative of the expenditure upon bread among working-class families it is an exaggeration to say that the chief item in a working-class family’s expenditure, in France at least, is the broad bill.