Australia Alarmed Over Steady Increase in Housekeeping Bills

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 January 1948, Page 5

Australia Alarmed Over Steady Increase in Housekeeping Bills

(From U. G. Mentiplay) Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A. Recd. 7.40 p.m. Sydney, Jan. 26 The rapid and continued rise in retail prices of food and essential commodities throughout Australia, with no prospect of stabilisation. is causing general alarm in the Commonwealth. The steady advance of weekly housekeeping bills caused one delegate to the Australian Labour Party women's annual conference to exclaim “If the price rise is not-arrested it will bring down the Labour Administration.” Most people are less concerned with this, however, than with the statement by the president of the Housewives’ Association, Mrs. Eleanor Glencross, that a family of four with an average income of £6 15s a week can no longer afford .sufficient nourishing food. The basic wage in Sydney, which is the highest in Australia, will go up two shillings to £5 14s mi February 1, and there is no family allowance for the first child. The extra two shillings will be

wiped out before ever it becomes payable. Five items alone have already accomplished this. In•ome tax will take about fid of the increase. Recently bread prices advanced by a halfpenny per 21b. loaf, milk 2d a gallon, eggs 6(1 a dozen and butter 3Jd per lb. On normal budgeting for a family of four this shows an increase in the weekly housekeeping bill, since November of 2s 8(1, which will make the basic wage family 8d worse off than before. By comparison with pre-war prices increases in other essential lines are staggering. Following is a list of today’s prices in representative lines, the 1939 prices being given first: Shoulder of lamb. Is lid, 3s lid; mincemeat, 4d per lb., 104(1 per lb.; lettuce, 4d, Is; cauliflowers, 6d, 2s fid; apples, Id each, 5d each; cherries, 4d per lb., 2s 6d per lb; butter, Is 7d, Is Hid. Men’s suits are four to five guineas dearer and shirts, hats and shoes have more than doubled in price Tn some eases

women’s wear has increased five fold.

Ollier items which have at least doubled themselves are furniture, rents, haircuts and all kinds of transport fares. The' Commonwealth Statistician recently slated that retail prices had increased 33 per cent since 1939, but added that this was a broad average taken across all prices. Indications that the price tjdc has not reached its highest level lie in the facts that the effects of the 40-hour week have rot yet been added to costs, and that the Government is contemplating the removal of some or all, its retail subsidies, which amount to £26,000,000 a year. Abolition of the subsidies would boost prices of tea by 2s 5d per lb., butler by ’>d per lb., potatoes by Id per lb., men’s suits by £2 and men’s shoes by 6s fid a pair, and there would be a 5 per cent, increase in woollens and textiles. Reduction in taxation would ease matters, but the Government already says, in effect, “You cannot have a taxation cut and relain subsidies.” I