At a meeting of the Industrial League and Council at
the end of last week, Mr. MoKenna referred to the Index Figure of the, Cost of Living. He said :- "There never were more misleading figures published by e public department than those. They did not really represent 161 per cent. increase in the cost of living at all. They were 151 per cent. increase on the coot of the budget of a workman who was estimated to have had a pre-war wage of 28s., who had a wife and two children, and who was supposed to buy exactly the same quantity of the same articles as he had bought before the war. A wornan with a family earning 28s. per week before the war spent the greater part of his wages on food. A workman who earned 40s. per week spent a less proportion on food. But the cost of food had risen more than the cost Of other• articles, and it followed that while 161 per cent. might be the increased cost of the budget of the particular workman referred to, the increase in the cost of living in the case of the workman earning more than 28s. per week before the war would not be as much."
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