COST OF LIVING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 7

COST OF LIVING

INCREASE NOT DUE TO TARIFF PROSPERITY FOLLOWS PROTECTION It is frequently urged that the high cost of livinq and the manner in which it continues to remain high, is due to our tariff barriers, which prevent the importing of •‘cheap” foreign goods and raise prices art.fically against the consumer. A closer inquiry and accurate comparisons between various countries show that the variations in the cost of living scale are independent of tariff ! walls. I CAREFUL analysis of the «on>various countries of the w'orld j is published each year by the lnternationl labour Bureau of the League of Nations at Geneva. and the 1928 figures show I that, taking the pre-war prices of 1914 ' as an index, the cost of living in New | Zealand has risen by *2 per cent. But ;in Australia, under a much high* r } protective tariff, it has only risen •'*'* per cent., while in Freetrade Britain it has risen 68 per cent. The superprotected United States finds it 7<» per cent, higher now. but in Canada next door, the cost is only 57 per cent, above ’• 1914. PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY So that the cost of living has soared in varying degrees regardless of tariri- ' or whether the country is High Protection. Freetrade. or “Freetection ; like New Zealand. European countries show similar disparities. the H.C.L. of Germany being only 53 per cent, above 1914. while in Sweden it has soared by 73 per cent. Those economists and even the * experts'" who i seize on the increased cost of living as a weapon with which to defeat the j claims of local industries for a safeguarding tariff will find in the end that such a weapon of offence may turn out to be a boomerang. While the international comparisons not only rebut the argument that tariffs and living costs are interlocked, hut other comparisons show that protection and prosperity always appear hand in hand, and force one to the inevitable conclusion that it is not so much the high cost of living that we have to worry about as the ability jto meet it with the wages earned. Not ‘ only are wages higher in a highlyprotected country. but there is less unemployment and more wages paid out in those countries whose workers are sheltered behind the benevolent j protection of a solid tariff wall. The 1 cost of living has risen in protected • countries equally or unequally with I free trade ones. but the protected workers have not suffered the same losses of wages, through short time j and unemployment, that have been i experienced in Free Trade countries like Britain, or a Freetection (revenue tariff) country like New Zealand. Anti-protection advocates may argue. as before, that the combination ; of protection and prosperity is a mere 1 coincidence which must adjust itself ultimately. If this theory is true, Then i New Zealand can do with a long spell | of this sort of ' coincidence,” and might apply it to her home industries, leaving its “ultimate economic adjustment*’ : to the future. PROTECTION LOWERS COST The myth that increased protection must mean an increased cost of living j and production is one that persists stubbornly despite all proof produced to the contrary. Some people will inj sist that increasing the duty on any imported article must raise the price . of the locally-made article; and they j fasten this dogma in some logic-tight compartment of their Free Tradef complexed brain, refusing to recognise the simple fact that the amount of duty on any locally-made article does ; not enter into the "costing” Which determines its price to the consumer. Here is a significant paragraph from the last annual report of the Common- , wealth Tariff Board: ' In many cases the applicants (for higher tariffs) claim that the granting of additional duty will not mean increased prices, for the reason that increased output, which they antici- ! pate will result, will mean decreased i costs of production, and will enable j existing prices to be maintained, if not lowered. Some applicants have given definite undertakings not to increase their prices in the event of the duty | being increased.” “Past experience has shown that these undertakings have not only been honoured, but in quite a nurnI ber of instances the result of increasing the duty on goods ha* ( been that consumers have been enabled to purchase the commodities at prices considerably lower j than they otherwise would.” In the fact of that clear, definite and official pronouncement, will our • Free Trade diehards still contend that safeguarding our industries must increase the cost of living or producP.A. '“EQUAL TO WORLD’S BEST” HUDSONS “WATER” BISCUITS WIN HIGH APPROVAL “Hudson’s Water Biscuits are equal to any water biscuits in the world! This sweeping statement was made, by such an eminent authority in the biscuit-making world as the Right Hon. Sir Walter Palmer, founder of the firm which makes the famous Huntley and Palmer biscuits at Reading, Kngland. Sir Walter visited New Zealand over 20 years ago, and examined all the ; biscuits made in the country. He I found that Hudson's “Water” were of such outstanding quality that he had sample tins specially packed and forwarded to his own factories, and . examined by his expert bakers. [ They, too, were surprised at the • high quality of these biscuits and could i not understand how such flavour and crispness could be introduced into a biscuit made from such simple ingredients As a matter of fact, the only ingredients in “Water” biscuits are 1 flour, a little salt, a suggestion of butter, and buttermilk —not water. | strange to say. Hudsons have been making these biscuits for nearly 60 years and long ago brought their methods to per- ; fection. The biscuits are known from the North Cape to the Bluff, and hundreds of crates—each of 3 2 tins—are sold annually. These biscuits are packed in handy i half-pound packets. There are two main reasons why the packaging of biscuits into half-pound rolls has become so popular. It suits the storekeeper because no time is lost in weighing out or in breakage, and it i also suits the customer because h*=* j can thus buy biscuits that have not j been handled after the> left the | factory.