FREEZE OR STARVE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17159, 1 October 1923, Page 10

FREEZE OR STARVE.

COST OF LIVING IN GERMANY. By Telegraph— Frees Association—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, September 20. The Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says: ‘‘The cost of living is still increasing by leaps and. bounds. A great factor is the high cost of coal. English supplies are now selling in Hamburg at 125 per cent cheaper than Westphalian, and even inferior German brown coal costs 90 per cent more at Hamburg than good English coal. “ Railway, train and bus prices have advanced tenfold in a fortnight and have doubled in the last two days. “ The cost of central heating is now so great that tenants in blocks of flats are giving it up, preferring to freeze rather than starve. “As to prices, what can a. married wage-earner, getting from 700 million to 1200 million marks weekly, do when beef costs 4-0.000,000 marks per lb. butter 60,0000,000, margarine 25,000.000? Every time he goes to work he must pay 9,000,000 marks for a. return ticket. Yet these men are the aristocrats of labour. Charwomen only get 12,000,000 marks ner week, plus their fares. Women often return from the market weeping because they are unable to buy even the cheapest articles of food.”