The Star. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1903. THE COST OF LIVING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7806, 10 September 1903, Page 2

The Star. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1903. THE COST OF LIVING.

A report prepared by the secretary to the Labour Department, showing th© comparative prices of commodities in Wellington in 1893 and 1903,. and presented to Parliament yesterday, may ba accepted 1 as a fairly accurate illustration of the increase in the cost of living which has taken place in Christchurch during the past ten years. It shows that house rent has risen by 25 per cent,^ meat 30 per cent, coal 10 per cent, cut firewood 50 per cent, clothes 16 per cent, sawn, timber 40 per cent, and ham, bacon and eggs 25 per cent. Flour has fluctuated from £8 to filler torn, and ia a-t present £10 7s 6di per ton. Bread has risjen from 2£d to 3^d per 21b loaf, tea has fallen in price, rice, sago, tapioca, jam, dried fruits, currants, raisins, and kerosene are slightly cheaper, and th© cost of boots, tobacco and . ready-mad© clotthiiiDg 'has not altered. Allowing tan sonves differences in local conditions, tfro position of affairs in Christchurch is very similar to that in, Wellington. The prices in the two cities may not be figure for figure identical, but in the main the increase in th© cost of living has been very much the same jn both. In other words, th© cost of most of the necessities of li£e in, Christchurch has increased by, roughly speaking, 25 per cent. Who has benefited by this increase? The rise in th© price of meat, ham, bacon and eggs has helped tike farmer and those dependent upon him, but as far as ifc is possible to see, it Sloes not appear that the increased ocst of food, fuel or clothing has /been either a direct cr indirect advantage to the great majority. The increase is largely attributable to the steady rise in wages which has taken >pia>ce during the decade, but heie again it is doubtful whether anybody is really the better off. The wage-earner undoubtedly earns a great deal ni»re than ho did ten years ago 1 , 'but a considerable portion of his extra earnings is eaten up by tbe increased cost of living. Still, the balance is probably in his favour. For the last , two or three years it has also been in favour of the farmer and those allied with him, and the general looseness in the mcney market has materially profited! traders and professional men. But there are signs that that very large section of tihe coanmuinity "which consists of the earners of salaries is in the anomalous position of 'being positively ; a sufferer f roml the present prosperity of the country in which; it lives. Salaries, it .is true, have risen with the improvement , in business, but- they have not risen in aiiiythmg like as great a /proportion as tba cost * of Jiving. Clerks aod cfche.r salaried workers whoso wages are" not fixed by law are on the whole rather worse off than they were in the black years of the eighties and nineties. ' / • \