CHEAP LIVING IN ENGLAND

Southland Times, Issue 23677, 28 November 1938, Page 6

CHEAP LIVING IN ENGLAND

CLOTHING AT HALF N.Z. COST MR POOLE’S IMPRESSIONS ABROAD That the general worker could live much more cheaply in England than in New Zealand was the impression gained by Mr A. V. Poole, who returned to Invercargill yesterday after an eight months’ tour abroad. Mr Poole spent most of his time in the Midlands of England and he saw the conditions under which all classes of the people lived.

The cost of living practically everywhere he went was cheaper than it is in New Zealand. Clothing and shoes could be purchased for only about half as much as would be paid for similar articles in New Zealand and the cost of houses and rents also were very reasonable.

In the main lines of clothing the worker could outfit himself at small cost. He could get a suit of clothes of good quality for 50/-, an overcoat for less than half the cost of overcoats in New Zealand and footwear and hats just as cheaply. Mr Poole saw homes which were built I for £450. They were workers’ homes splendidly built and good enough for anyone. In the Midlands the rents of many homes for workers ranged from 4/6 to 5/6 a week. Few of the men earned more than 15/- a day, and with that wage arid cheap living they were as happy as any. “I noticed how contented the people were,” he said. “In every part of England they appeared to be quite happy with their lot. They were clean and tidy about their homes and wholly desirable people in all ways. It speaks well for the general contentment of the country to see the working classes living so happily.” TOURING BY CAR To see England, Scotland and Wales as it should be seen Mr Poole, who was accompanied by Mrs Poole on his travels, followed the popular course of buying a motor-car and travelling by road. “There is no better method of touring a country like England,” he said. “We travelled 10,000 miles in this way and saw much which must have been lost to us by any other means of travel.” Mr Poole visited his birth-place at Cannock Chase, near Birmingham. He was greatly impressed by the beauty of rural England. The intense cultivation of the farm lands, the perfect roads, the beautiful trees and the hedgerows were something to be remembered. There were no waste lands to spoil the beauty of the countryside. Asked about the reaction of the people of England to the European crisis, Mr Poole said it had them thinking very deeply. They could not forget the Great War. Trade was at a standstill at the time. He was in London when the order to dig trenches and use sand bags was issued and he took part in the operations. “We in New Zealand do not realize what it all meant to the English people,” said Mr Poole. “Their experience in the last war was enough.” Mr and Mrs Poole also visited Canada and the United States, America, Paris, Wales, the Isle of Wight and Ireland. They visited many historic places and inspected several big industrial concerns. The attention given to the overseas tourist who visited the bigger works was amazing, said Mr Poole. Parties were conducted over factories and works by attendants and were most hospitably entertained. Of the American cities he was most favourably impressed by New York and was surprised how easy it was to find one’s way about in such a metropolis. There was a population of 7,000,000 moving about New York’s streets but he saw no suggestion of congestion or disorganization of traffic. Chicago he thought was a noisy city. Police with screeching whistles directed the traffic and railways thundered overhead.