FURNISHING A HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1920, Page 8

FURNISHING A HOME.

STARTLING INCREASES. PRESENT CONDITIONS AND OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTUBK. The cost of furnishing a home was a subject about which the manager of a firm of "complete house furnishers," spoke to a New Zealand Times representative. By way of, preliminary, he ■ remarked that to him it seemed strange Labor had not yet come to realise that nothing was gained to it by increased wages. The difference at least was always passed on to the consumer, in which connection it was patent that the workers employed in any one particular occupation had to shorkler the burden of the natural eonseqii* we. of increased rates of pay in all other branches of employment to the end that the aggregate of higher values on all lines necessary to living easily balanced increases in remuneration to workers. In furnishing a home, the purchaser to-day was affected by enhanced salaries which are .being paid to bushmen, timber workers, cabinet-makers, turners, bedstead-makers', and mattressmakers, upholsterers, glass-makers, and glass-bevellers, polishers, shop assistants, and so on, to say nothing of freight, cartage, rent, overhead charges. The same position occurred in all other businesses. It was not to be wondered at then, he said, that the aforesaid buyer had now to pay an average of 70 pere cent, more to equip his home than was the case in 1914. BIG INCREASE. The prices for all lines had increased materially, the range being from J>o per cent, to about 150 per cent. Before the war a person in receipt of £3 10s per week usually spent from £6O to £IOO as the initial outlay on his new home; tout in these post-war days the coat igr &? articles to the same

worker (tlie average person)—who now is in receipt of £5 10s per week—was from £IOO to .€1(10. Those in better occupation* and receiving more money were required to pay more than a pro rata increase for better furniture. There were no standard rates, he said, but in Illustration it could be stated that the price for mattresses had advanced from C 3 to £f>, bedsteads from £3 to £O, duchess chests from £5 to £B. other items in proportion. Crockery values had gone up over 100 per cent., while linoleum, which in 1!)14 was on sale at lis fid per yard, now cost 14s 6d per yard. The cost of oilcloth was lis lid per yard as against 4s, but there was practically no sale, a? an American line, congoleum, at 12s per yard, had about supplanted it in public favor. Another line that had almost disappeared was that once popular "Austrian" chair, which used to sell at Gs Cd- This article was scarcely ever 9hown by travellers in these times, but occasionally a Japanese sample at His 6d wholesale was submitted. Needless to say, there was no demand, FUTURE OUTLOOK. Questioned as to the possibility of a reduction in values, the "complete house furnisher" was pespimistic. Ho opined that there was more likelihood of an increase, at any rate, in respect of articles manufactured in the Doinin. ion. With reference to imports it was impossible to forecast.