H—4B

(ii) Postage and Telegrams Costs of ordinary telegrams and postage charges are included under this item T consumer expenditure being taken as half the total, excluding press telegrams. (Hi) Entertainment Cinema admission charges are included in this sub-group with a weight based on the known admission receipts. Football admission charges have been included as representing other entertainment, the weight assigned being calculated from amuse-ment-tax statistics. No difficulty was experienced in arriving at a suitable weighting for radio entertainment, since statistics of licences in force are available and there is a standard licence fee applying to the whole Dominion. (iv) Union Dues Union dues paid by representative groups of workers will be used as the basis of pricing for this sub-group, the weight being based on figures of union membership. (v) Health Services Outside Social Security This group is intended to cover health services not provided for by social security. It covers fees paid to general medical practitioners above the social security benefit,, fees in private hospitals (general and maternity) dentists' and opticians' fees, and—as representing specialist services—radiologist fees. The price applicable to these items will be net fees —i.e., less social security refund. The weight given to private-hospital services is based on statistics of the number of admissions to private hospitals. As regards dentists and opticians, statistics of registrations and census statistics were used in arriving at a weight for these items. (vi) Personal Services Statistics of numbers engaged as disclosed by the results of the 1945 census were used as a basis of weighting for this group. A deduction was made in the case of laundering to cover laundering for institutions, hotels, &c. CHAPTER 11—SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 42. We recommend that a revised prices index, to be known as the Consumers' Price Index, be compiled and published by the Government Statistician, and that the Wartime Prices Index be discontinued upon publication of the new index. 43. Our proposals relate to one index applying to the generality of New Zealand consumers. The commodities and services represented in the index are not limited to essentials, but the index will cover the whole range of commodities and services used "in the average household—with representation, as far £s possible, of the amenities of modern living. 44. The commodities and services included in the proposed index are representative of the expenses of a family as a going concern, and less normal expenditure patterns—e.g., expenditure of newly married couples or of families just moved to a new locality — are not so well represented. This must be so, for no single index can adequately represent all variants from normal living patterns. Again, living-expenses of lodgers, " roomers," and people living in hotels can be only very generally represented by an index which is based on the family as a unit.

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