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Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143763, 11 April 1912, Page 7

Writes a resident of Sydney to a relative in Auckland: Although wages are high, the cost of living is getting a terrible burden on the breadwinner. I really think that, on the whole, the worker was better off some years ago with lower wages. Everything has gone up, at the restaurants nothing is supplied under a shilling, and articles that formerly were not charged for are no longer given in. The public say that every award that is made is only a prelude to higher demands. The purchasing value of money is less than it was by a good deal, as the workers and their wives are finding out day by day. Every indication points to a still higher cost of living in the near future. The thinking and reasoning man admits that higher wages are not as much of benefit to him as he expected, or was led to expect, and that he would just as soon return to a more moderate schedule of wages and a more reasonable tariff for the necessaries of life, and they wonder how long wages will keep advancing and the cost of living do so likewise. The present position is not satisfactory either for capital or labour. We have to acknowledge parcels of Books for Bushmen from Mrs. F. Goodacre and “Friend.”