INCREASE OF SIXPENCE TO HARBOUR BOARD WORKMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 7

INCREASE OF SIXPENCE TO HARBOUR BOARD WORKMEN.

(To the Editor.) j Sir, —The action of Messrs. Glover and Napier, two candidates for Parliamentary honours, on the eve of a general j | election, re the above, calls for some' comment. What would this increase of Gd on 8/- mean to the Board ? I l-16th additional cost in labour on all ! their prospective outlay on urgent work I for which many hundreds of thousands of borrowed money will be required. It' will also establish a standard of wage which all our local bodies and private employers of labour will be expected to observe, and wQI, I have no doubt, have a restrictive effect upon expenditure, i generally. I submit-that the wagss paid

by the Harbour Board are sufficient, -especially in viewof the ifact that the , men practically suffer no loss of; time— I all holidays are paid for. The works are expected to" be'of long duration, and so long as the men employed are diligent I they can regard their- work as permanent, and I am certain that, on the whole,! the men in tjie Board's employ are well satisfied. They know there are thousands of competent men at the present I moment in the Dominion who would be only too glad to exchange places with them. That being so, why the proposed j increase?—l am, etc. PRUDENCE. ! . ; i