COMPARISONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 167, 18 July 1938, Page 6

COMPARISONS.

The University of Otago advertises for a chemist for medical research with at least three yeare , training in chemistry, and as a reward for study the enormous salary of £300 to £400 a year is offered, according to experience and (qualifications. In the same column the Public {Service Commissioner also advertises, but he ■ demands that the applicant* have had practical (experience in organic chemistry, a knowledge of biochemistry and physiology. His maximum offer is £3SO. There are other examples in the same column—a technical trainee for the Xational Broadcasting Service to start at £80. rising to a minimum of £155 at 21 years of age. Contrast this with the wages and salaries claimed by industrial workers and fixed by award*. Take, for example, beef butchers at £600 a year, pig butchers at £420 for 52 weeks. They do not work for 52 weeks, but between 30 and 40 weeks of less than 40 hours per week. Kojspecial training is necessary for a pork butcher—it ie really unskilled work. The above examples prove beyond doubt that the Government offers little encourage- *

ment to the younger generation to improve their value to the State. To become an efficient chemist for medical research demands years of etudy. self-denial and hard work, and the reward is les« than the £1 per day that the P.W.D. road worker receives. Xo chemist can get anywhere on a 40-hour week: it means continual studv and work. CITIZEN.