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the children more than 2s. 3d. a year. In Standards V and VI the books cost the children ten years ago at least 12s. per pupil. Now they cost them about ss. 3d. That is to say, there has been a reduction of over 50 per cent, to the parents in the cost of educating their children. Of the reading-books lam taking into consideration only those they pay for. Any one at school ten years ago used only one readingbook, but the Government now supplies about five free reading-books for Standards V and VI. If you consider the increased number of books they read at the present time you might say that the cost has been reduced from 70 to 80 per cent. " 190. What about secondary education in the district high schools ? —The education at those schools, leaving out the books, costs the parents nothing. In many of the district high schools they are getting as good an education as in the high or secondary schools—in some of them an education superior to that which they would get in some of the so-called high schools. " 191. Would you say that the books in high schools would cost about 355. a year ? —Something like that. They used to cost more than that, but we are getting every year a supply of better and cheaper books. " 192. For that expenditure of 355. people are getting education which they could not have got at all some years ago ? —Yes. At one time they had to pay three or four guineas a quarter for what they now get for nothing." This, of course, refers to the direct cost, with which alone the Commission is concerned.

CHAPTER lII.—COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES. Question 2 : Has the increase in the cost of living, if any, been more marked in New Zealand than in other English-speaking countries ? 1. A direct comparison of the increase in the cost of living in New Zealand and other countries is impossible, as the necessary income-and-expenditure budgets do not exist in New Zealand for the period in question. Your Commission is therefore limited to a comparison of the tentative results obtained in Chapter I with .the changes shown by the most reliable investigations abroad. We have had the advantage of the inquiries made by Hooker,* the United States Bureau of Labour, the British Board of Trade, Sauerbeck, and the Canadian Department of Labour. 2. The first table shows how general wholesale prices have changed in New Zealand compared with seven other countries :—

Direct comparison impossible.

Wholesale prices.

Table 13. —Index Numbers of General Prices, 1890 to 1911. (The price for each year is expressed as a percentage of the average annual price for the ten years 1890-99.)

iv—H. 18.

Country. © r-J CJ OS 00 X c4 CO •* 00 00 00 OS 20 SDt-OO Cft © W C* « ** OiOiOi OiOOOOO O0O00O QOOlOiOlOiOJ ITS (O o o 00 OS OJ O r-l 3J — 09 United Kingdom— Sauerbeck Economist Board of Trade United States America — Labour Bureau Canada — Coats France— Reforme Economique Belgium— Waxweiler Germany—■ Hooker Italy— Export values New Zealand — Mcllraith 109 110 108 113 110 109 109 108| 112 112 108 109 103 :103 106 106 103 103 103' 103 104 106 102 107 95 100 98 96 97 98 94 94 95 94 96 92 92 96 92 90 92 94 94 94 90 92 91 97 93 971 93 96 96 103 96 I 96 102 100 105 114 107j 104 ( 110 l 108 112 106 ! 101 101j 1° 9 ! 107i 105 i'105 105 ! 97il01 ; ioo ioi 'J113114 ,109111 103105 112113 103J109 104:106 100100 106109 106 105 102101' 113116 111114 104 105 114114 111114 107 108 95 98 117 115 1104 123 120 115 121111 125110 110.107 129123 126121 122111 122 126 133120 119115 107104 112 109 108 127 121 112 118 116 113 132 124 118 127 121 iJ4f 90 101 102 102 95 98 97 96 100 101 102 108 110 121 124 122 110 111 104 101 94 92 91 94 99 104 111 107 123 124 128 111 104 104 103 98 99 94 92 94 103 117 108 114 116 107 108 104 100 98 93 96 97 97 98 101 98 101 101 103 f 107 I not 109 112J * Statistical Jo; f, Dece] ibe: \ 1 11. I :igh( sst dnce 1884. t l! icluding til iber.