456 
STETTIN. 
new house fetches a higher rent than a tenement consisting of the same number 
of rooms in an old house, the former being always better provided with facilities 
for admitting light and air, besides having the separate vestibule to which great 
value is attached. In some of the older houses, especially those in the low- 
lying riverside quarter of Lastadie, the stair landings are entirely devoid of light, 
and the kitchen is little more than a hole, into which a cooking stove has been 
fitted, and where candle-light is required in the daytime. Strictly speaking, 
tenements consisting of only two rooms, together with a " kitchen ” of this 
description, should not be classed as three-roomed dwellings, but apparently a 
certain proportion of them have been so classed, since rents of 10s. 6d. and less 
per month have been returned for a number of the dwellings described as con 
sisting of three rooms. For 642, or more than one-half of the three-roomed 
dwellings, the rents charged were from 14s. to 17s. per month, while 235 were 
let at less than 14s., and 249 at more than 17s. per month. The predominant 
rents of typical working-class tenements of three rooms in Stettin may therefore 
be taken as being from 14s. to 17s. per month, that is to say from 3s. 3d. to 
3s. 11 d. per week. These rents give an index-number of 46, rent at Berlin 
being considered = 100. 
Except the water rate, which is paid by the landlord, no local taxation 
enters into this rent, for in Stettin, as in other Prussian towns, the bulk of the 
funds required for purposes of local government are derived from a municipal 
income-tax, and not from any form of taxes assessed on the rental value of 
the dwelling occupied. The municipal income-tax in Stettin is equivalent to 
140 per cent, of the State income-tax, and is levied at the same time as the 
latter, on all incomes of over £45 per annum. The following Table shows the 
amount of the yearly income-tax for municipal purposes, payable on the different 
income classes within which the majority of working-class families would fall. 
Yearly Income. 
Over £45 to £52 10s... 
„ £52 10s. to £60.. 
„ £60 to £67 10s... 
„ £67 10s. to £75.. 
,, £75 to £32 10s... 
„ £82 10s. to £90.. 
„ £90 to £105 .. 
Amount of Tax, 
Ils. 3d. 
16s. lid. 
22s. Id. 
30s. Id. 
39s. 6d. 
48s. lid. 
58s. 3d. 
Bétail Prices. 
In the purchase of their supplies of such household provisions as groceries, 
bread, flour and fuel, the working classes of Stettin have a choice between a 
multitude of private shops doing business on a modest scale and the local 
co-operative distributive society, which has 23 branch stores scattered through 
out the different parts of the town. At the end of 1906 this society had a 
membership of 15,030, largely composed of workpeople, and its sales in the 
course of that year amounted to £96,080, or about £6 8s. per member on an 
average. Working-class custom appears to be divided impartially between the 
private shopkeepers and the stores. The retail sale of fresh meat is entirely in 
hands of dealers of the “ family butcher ” type. 
Groceries and other Commodities. 
In the following statement of the predominant prices of certain household 
provisions other than butchers’ meat, as charged by retail dealers in Stettin at 
October, 1905, and November, 1906, each price is based on the quotations of 
several dealers, among the latter being included the workmen’s co-operative 
society. 
It will be noticed that, with the exception of a slight rise in sugar, retail 
prices were the same at the two periods.