COST OF LIVING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 3 August 1937, Page 11

COST OF LIVING

A COMPARISON. LONDON AND NEW ZEALAND. “Prices here are generally above Now Zealand levels, particularly as regards food,” writes a New Zealand traveller from London in a letter received by a Palmerston North resident. The letter gives interesting details of costs, which are all the more striking on account of the recent comment of a Los Angeles visitor to Christchurch who averred that living costs in Wellington were the highest in the world. “For example,” the letter from London continues, “this afternoon I went to a Maritime Museum, with lots of Nelson relics and other interesting stuff, and decided on afternoon tea. 'l’lio charge was Is 8d and a 4d tip (a pot of tea 4d, one round of sandx wichcs 8d and two pieces of very ordinary block cake 8cl). The restaurant charges are positively ruinous, and 1 should know since J. have been in every famous one in the West End. A charge

of £1 12s is not unheard of for two J grilled steaks, vegetables, roll anil but- j ter, coffee and a couple of lager beers, j Lunch in the Cheshire Cheese costs 4s 6d for just one portion of the famous . steak and kidney pie. Only tradition ; helps it through—Dr Johnson, Pepys and Dickons gave it, their distinguish-! ed patronage. Dinner at the London j Casino, which puts on a couple v of_ act*. ] and provides dance music, costs 17s 6d a head and 21s on Saturdays, and it is only a shame what refreshments cost without mentioning some of the others, like cloak-rooms, flower girls, chocolate sellers, programmes ana so on, act infinitum. “Clothes, of course, are cheap or terribly expensive, just as your pocket, or your district, dictates. A respectable looking suit to measure can he ' had at 50s. In the right quarter, say j Savile Dow, it may cost £l4 14s. To the casual observer there is not a vast difference. Shoes run from 10s to £4 ss. It seems that London caters for many markets.”