CHEAPER LIVING.

Waipa Post, Volume XX, Issue 1179, 8 December 1921, Page 5

CHEAPER LIVING.

MR H. GREGSON’S IMPRESSIONS,

Mr Harold Gregson, the Auckland organist, and his wife passed through Wellington last week on their way back from America to their home in Auckland. They have toured all over the Pacific Slope, making extended stays at San Francisco and Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

Speaking to a reporter about the economic contrast between California and New Zealand, Mr Gregson said it was surprising to find that living was a great deal cheaper there than here. Before the war there was no cheaper country in the world to live in than New Zealand for those who could afford a decent standard, but this has changed. “I can assure you,” said Mr Gregson, “that in women’s wear you can buy for £2O in San Francisco what would cost £7O in Wellington, and the prices were down, too, in Los Angeles. Indeed, it was Los Angeles which started cutting. It had to begin at some time. The shopkeepers were all loaded up with stuff, and fashions change so quickly that there had to be some severe cutting sooner or later. But the lowering of prices did not only extend to clothes. Luncheon at the big Fairmont and St. Francis Hotels in San Francisco only costs 75 cents, and it is 10 to lb cents cheaper in .other hotels, which are nearly as good. I should say that on the whole, living there is now about a third Cheaper than it is in New Zealand. We stayed at a very comfortable hotel in San Francisco for two dollars a day, though the tariff was five dollars three years ago. Then at Santa Barbara, near Los Angeles, where there is a millionaire for every lamp post, we did our own housekeeping in a charmingly situated apartment house, and it worked out wonderfully cheap. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place—wonderful gardens, lawns, most luxuriant foliage. A hundred varieties of Ipalm, and I don’t know how many varieties of cacti grow in this gem of Southern California. I was offered a strong inducement to stay there as organist to the First Presbyterian Church, and the offer is still open.

“Los Angeles has made wonderful strides since I was / there five years ago. It is developing into a big metropolis which will overshadow ’Frisco altogether soon. Strenuous efforts are being made to develop the port of Los Angeles so as to foster direct trade. They have an artificial harbour formed by throwing out an enormous breakwater. We entered Los l Angeles from the sea to have a look at the place from that angle. There was a fair amount of shipping in port, and they were actually building a large structure for the handling of immigrants—the people, who, they anticipate, are to make the whole of Southern California blossom as the rose.

Mr Gregson said that there was a decided slump in the manufacturing end of the picture business. Many of the companies had suspended operations altogether, owing to over-pro-duction and a falling away of business, and there were many people who had to find other avenues of employment. The picture theatres of Los Angeles were most luxurious, and the fine orchestras employed served to enhance the entertainment.