WAR BURDENS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1920, Page 9

WAR BURDENS.

THE MIDDLE-CLASS OUTLOOK,

RATES AT 209 IN THE POUND.

London, Oct, 10.

'The heavy burden which the war has placed upon Great Britain is by no means equally distributed over the population. It, presses heaviest—and the pressure is steadily growing—upon what was the modeiately well-oil' section of the middleclass, who, by reason of the nature of their employment or source "f income, find that income at the same figure as in 11114, with the sovereign purchasing power at about Ss lid as compared to '2os in pre-war days, whilst at the same time circumstances conspire to render it more or less impossible for them to make inat--1 crial reductions in their standard of living. The "workers"—by which our labor leaders apparently mean only those who earn their living wholly or chiefly through their muscles—are, thanks to increased I wages, very little or no worse oil than they were before the war, in spite- of the advance, in the price of the nccessarI ies of life, and a large number of them ' arc decidedly better off than they weie. But to possessors of an inelastic income l (from whatever source derived) which meant a decent living, on only an iuextravagant plan of life, the conditions to-day press hardly indeed, and the pressure'grows daily, whilst of hope of any sensible relief in the near future there is none. To the middle-aged or maturer householder of this class, owning his own dwelling, the -outlook is indeed I alarming. lie may seek lo sell his home and fake refuge in some smaller place, but the. house shortage bars this path to economy most effectually at the present time, and no matter which way lie may turn in his search for a means to effect really material reductions iu his cmtI goings, he finds himself baulked. In clothing, for example, he may seek to make, say, two suits last as long as I three did in pre-war days but he can- ; not do so. The two-suits will cost him at least double the 1914 price, but they have not the "stamina" of the pre-war clothing, and reach the stage of iriwearablo shabbine.ss in an alarmingly short space of time. If is the same with practically all articles of clothing; the purchaser gets a double knock the price is up, the quality is down. When it comes to domestic replacements- and repairs the same thing holds good, and in connection with some goods—glass and chinaware, ironmongery of all kinds, mats, brooms, brushes among them—the price has trebled or even quadrupled; whilst the quality has, generally speaking, deteriorated to a marked extent. I When it conies to structural repairs and renovation the ; house-owner may well shiver in his shoes. 1 have before me a bill for certain paint work done I in the spring of 1(114. The price paid was ,-CS lfls. It is now absolutely essential for the work to he done again, and the lowest eslimate for exactly the ] same work is £23 10s, and the paint j will not be of the quality used iu the pre-war job. So much the painter frankly admits. Practically the cost of. any repairs or renovations inside or outside a building has risen pro rata, owing to the increased wages of the men and the advance in the price of materials. On top of these things the local authorities arc adding generously to the householders' burden. Local' rates all over the Kingdom have risen in some places to an alarming extent; indeed, in one Welsh borough the demand for the ensuing halfyear is at the. rate of 22s Sd in the pound on the assessed value of house property. In London the average rise in the rates since 1914 is fully ,'lO per cent., am' in one district—Bethiial Green to wit—it is 53 peneenf. The full rate for the year ending March 31, 1!)20, in this area is 12s 3d in the pound, but in other localities it is even higher, though the percentage increase has not been so great. In one or two areas the local rates run up to nearly 15s in the pound on the assessed annual value of house property, and it is quite a lucky boroujh that does not touch the 10s level.