COST OF LIVING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13396, 20 September 1907, Page 3

COST OF LIVING.

a comparison. TWENTY-FIVE YKARS AUOAND NOW. Controversies are frequently heard as to tlie extent by which cost of living has advanced in recent yeaiii, and there has come to ba held a general opinion that to live nowadays is very much more expansive than it used to be. In respect of rent and "butchers' meat the increased cost has been very marked, so far at least as Wellington is concerned,' but in respect of general commodities it has been difficult to ascertain It lie actual position owing to difficulty in finding (at present day) books setting out the prices ruling in bygone years. The other day, however, an invoice book for the years 1882-4 was discovered by the firm of J>. W. Virtue and Co., of Wellington, which in those years carried on an extensive business in wholesale and retail supply at Hokitika, and the wholesale prices for practically all the staple commodities form interesting reading and make striking comparison with the ruling prices at present day. On 21st June, 1882, the Victorian Sugar Company was charging £35 per ton for sugar f.o.b. at Melbourne, which meant £42 per ton landed in New Zealand. At the present- moment sugar is being sold atexactly half that amount. Another Victorian sugar .shipment in , the year cost- £3B to land in New Zealand/ Salted butter from Kaiapoi was sold wholesale at a shilling per pound f.o.b. in October, 1882, which meant a much increased price before it was secured bv the consumer: Fowlwheat was 3s lid per bushel, f.o.b. at Oainaru, in June, 1882, and in August of the same year Wilson. Harraway and Co., of Dunedin, were selling oatmeal at £l6 per ton, exactly what it costs to-day. In the same year chaff ranged from £5 10s per ton upwards to £6 10s; its present price being still about- £5 10s; and Oamaru flour in 1882 was £lO 15s per ton at Oamaru, which was 15s dearer than it now is, though wheat was then 9d per bushel cheaper. A shipment from Dunedin in the same year cost £ll 5s f.o.b. at Dunedin. In 1887 it was £lO per ton. Potatoes <=old at £3 per ton at Oamaru in 1882, the landed cost at Wellington being £4, and bran was quoted at £3 15s, as against £3 10s and £3 ss. Oats in 1882 were sold at 3s 4d f.o.b. at Timarn.. They were now 3s Id. Currants were landed from Victoria twenty-five vears ago from the firm of James Service and Co. at per pound landed. Their cost was now 4d to 4£d. • Dressed rice was then £23 18s a ton, it is row £ls lEs ; treacle was £9 10s to £lO lCs (aboutas much again as it now costs) ; and jams cost 6s 8d per dozen (wholesale) small tins landed in New Zealand. The bast of jams can now ba bought for 5s 6d per dozen, and there , are three tins of jam to be bought for' a shilling in Wellington retail •shops. Barber wire in 1883 was £45 per ton, and now it could be bought for £l4 10s. A line of coarse salt is invoiced at £4 7s 6d per ton, against £5 at present. Kerosene was Is BJ,d per gallon, whereas it could now b2 purchased for lid. Cement« was 16s per cask, against lis and 12s this year. Fine salt was £5 per ton landed at Wellington; to-day it costs £3 ss. Prices candles were 9Jd ; to-day's figure was 6Jd. An odd invoice for 1887 show., onions f.o.b. at GhrVitchurch for £6 5s per ton in October. They are now obtainable at £6 10s per ton.