The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1912. LABOUR AND THE LIVING WAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 115, 14 May 1912, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1912. LABOUR AND THE LIVING WAGE.

»— m - j For the oanae that ttohe aeeietemee, j For the tofitng that need* rerurtc (cc, I For the future in the distance, \ dud tbe good (tat we o*m do. i I

It is not difficult to understand ttw dissatisfaction now widespread among I the workers at Home in regard to the operation of the new Minimum VVacre Act. This measure, which was greeted by meet people as a generous concession to the requirements of the workers, left the settlement of wages in each district , to a Wages Board, but without fixing ' any statutory lower limit. This means ; that though the Boards must establish a minimum wage, less than which, it will be illegal to pay, there is nothing to ; prevent them from fixing it as low a* j they think the conditions of the trade require. The South Wales and Northumberland District Boards have now given their awards, and in each instance they have fallen far below the men'demands more than this, the wage fixed for the workers under average conditions in the mines is actually less thau 5/, the amount which appeared to be recognised as the extreme minimum wage by the representatives of both sides during the Parliamentary debate* on the Bill. These awards have naturally proved a. bitter disappointment to the men. who are already talking menacingly about the possibility of another strike, which would be even more obstinately contested than the last. But quite apart from the wage-earners and the Socialists, moderate men on both sides are depressed and disheartened by the palpable failure of the new system to meet not only the demands of the men, but even the simple requirements of justice and humanity. These, recent developments may serve to explain why the unions were so anxious to get the minimum wages fixed for each district and incorporated in the Act itself. Without such statutory definition, they contended, the Boards would probably show as little regard as private j employers for the needs of the workers, j Mr. Asquith and the majority of his colleagues maintained that it was impossible to discuss in Parliament the various local conditions on which the rates of wages in different districts must depend, and that the workers should be satisfied if the general principle of the minimum wage were established, by law. After a heated controversy and long hesitation, the unions, on the advice of JrfT. Ramsay Mac Donald and other influential labour leaders, decided to give the principle a chance. The House of Commons refused by a large majority to incorporate the miners' schedules in the Bill. But it was expected that the District Boards when appointed would be able to prove ! to the workers that the mineowners were ! as anxious as the unions for an amicable J 1 and enduring settlement. Unfortunately.! j these hopes have been disappointed. The ' 1 course adopted by the two Boards which ! . have already given their awards amounts [ j to a deliberate defiance of the men's i

claims; and whatever be the conditions of the coal trade in Wales and Northumberrand, it is not to be expected that the men after their desperate struggle would be satisfied with less than a minimum of 5/ for day workers. No doubt the mine owners and the mining companies still contend that their trade will not stand a higher rate of wages. If this is true, the most appropriate comment was supplied the other day by the Archbishop of Canterbury, when he remarked that the industries which cannot pay the workers a living wage have no right to exist. Considering the state of industrial feeling at Home just now, we fear that the outcome of this first attempt to work the Minimum Wage Act will be another deadlock; and a3 the employers are. certainly responsible for this fresh crisis, it is extremely probable that the question of nationalising the coal areas will play a prominent part in politics in the near future.