10 STATISTICS OF EXPENDITURE AND 



" Now let us see how the cost of food, as computed from the 

 working men's returns, compares with its cost in the schools and 

 colleges and public institutions. At the average of summer and 

 winter returns in these, it is $44.17 (,per cap.); at the prison's 

 rate it is $35.51 ; at the asylum rate it is $47.12 ; at the infantry 

 school rate it is $54.75 ; at the college winter rate it is $59. . 

 . . . The working man's average, $47.67 per cap., is therefore 

 something more than a probable one ; it is well verified by sta- 

 tistics gathered from other sources, and I am disposed to think 

 that the cost of living is better known and more accurately 

 gauged in the families of the working classes than in the families 

 of any other class in the community." .... 



We are justified, therefore, in accepting the average budget 

 based on these returns as representative of the actual expendi- 

 ture of some hundreds of working men throughout Ontario. It 

 is true, no doubt, that men capable of intelligently making such 

 returns are likely to spend their incomes more rationally than 

 others of their class ; but the extravagances and waste of the less 



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prudent and thrifty in part offset each other, and must for the 

 rest be neglected. We may assume, therefore, that in the Prov- 

 ince of Ontario 39.0 per cent, is expended on food, 18.0 per cent, 

 on clothing, 8.1 per cent, on fuel, and 17 per cent, on rent ; or if 

 we take the average of the 4 year averages of the five important 

 towns as our standard, 47.8 per cent, on food, 17 per cent, on 

 clothing, 18.4 per cent, on rent, and 8.3 per cent, on fuel. 



These percentages are not without meaning even as an indi- 

 cation of absolute well-being. The smaller the percentage 

 expended on food and subsistence the larger the total provision 

 for the wants of our nature. Here and there an individual may 

 be found who stints himself of the imperious necessities of life 

 to obtain some coveted comfort or luxury ; but the great majority 

 satisfy the lower wants first and rise to the higher if sufficient 



o 



provision is made. Consequently, the smaller percentage in 

 Canada expended on food is an indication of a higher well-beino- 



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But it is necessary to investigate still further to find the degree 

 of well-being and to present quantities rather than percentages. 



