CONSUMPTION IN CANADA—DAVIDSON. wet 
What value does the average Canadian receive in food, house 
accommodation, fuel and clothing for the percentages of income 
thus expended? This is not a question of prices, but of weights 
and measures. Prices are of importance only as they indicate 
whether an increased or decreased consumption of any article is 
due toa change in price or to an increased command over the 
goods of life. The increased consumption of tea and sugar, for 
instance, is due to the fall in price; but the increased consump- 
tion of coffee, in so far as it isnot simply a transfer of taste from 
one article to another, shows an extending margin of consumption. 
An increase of consumption due to a fall in the price of an 
article does not necessarily mean that the citizens are better off. 
Their real wages and incomes have risen but their money wages 
may be constant ; but an increased use of an article whose price 
has not fallen indicates an increase of money wages and a more 
extended comimand over the goods of life. 
It is not possible, unfortunately, to enter into a detailed 
examination of the absolute values received in each class of 
expenditure. In the case of rent and food, we are able to present 
some of the more important items; but fuel and clothing 
remain indefinite. 
The item of fuel is the only one which takes a higher per- 
centage in Canada than in any other country. The cause is not 
an enhanced price, but the fact that a larger quantity must be 
used. The amount of fuel consumed per head of the population 
is unascertainable. From the mining statistics and the tables of 
trade and commerce, we can estiinate how much coal, bituminous 
and anthracite, is used; but how many of the people of Canada 
use coal? Probably the majority of the population do not use 
it in any form; even in industry coal is not always used ; and it 
is in the larger cities only that coal is used exclusively. The 
quantity of wood consumed as fuel is not ascertainable ; and since 
the quantity varies according to the house and according to the 
habits of the individual, no estimates, even approximately cor- 
rect, can be made. 
