Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1893. WORKMEN's WAGES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3052, 15 August 1893, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1893. WORKMEN's WAGES.

Mb Scobie Mackekzib, in his address in the Oddfellows' Hall here, twitted the working men of New Zealand about their support of a Government which pretended to give them legislation calculated to improve their condition, but gave them instead a set of Labor , Bills of a meretricious character that really when put into practical operation were not worth twopence of any working man's money. This was somewhat severe criticism, but at this point it is not worth the trouble of stopping to see how far it was justifiable. We only quote it to say that if the Bill now before the House for securing the payment of workmen's wages becomes law " Me ! Scobie Mackenzie" will have to look about for some other good thing of Government that is not worth twopence, for thisßill will certainly remove the charge of barrenness, real or supposed, from the Labor Bills. It provides for the weekly payment, if the wages are demanded, of ''workmen employed in manual labor," if no written agreement to the country has been entered into between the master and man. Jt makes a provision that will be at once accepted by everybody as wise—that wages are to be a first charge upon the moneys] due to a contractor by a contractee, and that every assignment, disposition, or charge given by the contractor to any person other than his workmen of or upon the said moneys, shall have no force or effect at law or in equity until all Wages due have been fully paid. No moneys received by the contractor from a contractee shall be liable to be attached or charged, except by the workmen, until the workmen have been fully paid; and the contractor shall keep an account of all moneys received by him as aforesaid and of how they aro disbursed, the account^to be produced for the inspection of any workman whose wage 3 aie in arrear. Nor must the contractee pay the contractor in advance, and shall be liable to workmen for the amount duo to the contractor, the claims being determined in court, which has full power to enquire into and settle in a summary manner all questions and disputes arising between contractor and contractee, or between workmen themselves. The wages of the contractor's workmen are absolutely secured so long as the party for whom the job is done remains solvent. So far as the Bill go©3 in this direction everything is plain sailing aud a fine weather voyage. But when we begin to make enquiries in the interpretation clause we find that "contractor " means " employer of labor." Well, there are hundreds and hundreds of contractors of this kind whose " confcractees " are hardly tangible enough for the provisions of this Bill to grasp, so that the workmen of such employers will have to hark back for their protection to the Contractors' aad Workmen's Lien Act. But this Bill gives such workmen the right to demand their wages at the end of every week, and weekly payments are the best Bafeguard a workman has. In this colony whfere so many men are uncertain as to work it is right to make them as sure as possible of their wages, aod this certainty will help their credit jbo a great extent as their ability to redeem it will be more to be relied upon with such a Bill behind them as this, which we fancy will be looked noon by most people as a step in the right direction. Afc any rate it will bs worth more to the working man than the "twopence" of Mr Scobie Mackenzie.