CONSUMPTION IN CANADA DAVIDSON. 11 



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 to a 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 is not 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 command 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 una.scertainable. From the mining statistics and the tables of 

 trade and commerce, we can estimate 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. 



