WAGES TOO HIGH?

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 141, 17 June 1929, Page 10

WAGES TOO HIGH?

PUBLIC RELIEF WORKS.

EXODUS FROM GUMFIELDS.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PROTESTS

Stating that the rates attract not only unemployed men, but also induce men in employment to leave their positions, the Auckland Chamber of Commerce has protested to the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, against the payment of high wages to men employed on public relief works. The totals of registrations at the Auckland Labour Bureau during the past few weeks reveal the possibility of men. from, other areas coming t& the city and employed workers leaving their ■trades to take relief work. The figures show that the men seeking work have numbered about 1000, and although the number fluctuated weekly, no continued decrease was ever shown. The number of men placed in employment each week has numbered about 75, the total for six weeks being 443, the highest number in one week being; 124. It is thought that the total should have been reduced by now, even allowing for the fact that many of the positions found for men may last only a short time.

"Some time ago public attention was drawn to the tendency for the present high wages paid on public relief works not merely .to attract the genuinely unemployed, but also to encourage to leave their existing occupation men who are in constant employment," reads the chamber's letter to the Prime Minister. "It has been alleged, we do not know with what measure of truth, that this has seriously affected farm employment. There has, however, recently come to our knowledge the fact that men are leaving the gumfields to seek employment on public works and that the market has been rendered practically bare of certain types of kauri gum, particularly those which come from the eastern Coromandel district. It is probably true that the gradual working out of the more readily available gum resources, coupled with other factors, will eventually mean a considerable reduction in the numbers employed on the "umfields, but there is some indication "that there has been a substantial exodus from the fields since the wages on relief works were raised.

"That there seems to be a tendency for people to flock toward the districts where relief works are available appears clear and the Government Statistician suggests that the increase in registrations at the Labour Bureau, Gisborne, ie accountable for on these grounds. We feel that the position that has arisen merits the close consideration of your Government, and would particularly stress the fact that relief works are, as we understand the position, instituted ae a temporary measure in times of general unemployment and that the reduction of employment on such works should be as automatic as possible when prosperity returns. .We suggest that only if the wages paid on relief works are made somewhat unattractive will there be an automatic exodus of workers from relief works when prosperity returns."