WAGES DURING DEPRESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 118, 22 May 1939, Page 8

WAGES DURING DEPRESSION.

Effective wage rates —the power of wages to purchase goods—are a matter of official estimation, not a matter of estimation hv "day See." I have given the official authority for my statement that effective wane rates were, higher in every one of the depression years than they were in either 102S or 1929. '".lay See"' has given us nothing but his own windy assertions. If "Jay Sec" knows anvthing of the facts, he must know that l>eforc any cut was made in money wages far greater cuts had been made in the money returns of almost all classes other than wage-earners, farmers having, as I have already said, suffered a cut of £20,000,000 in their * returns from exports alone. I have desired, in this discussion, to bring out three salient facts in regard to the depression: (1) Effective wage rates rose during the depression in place of falling, consequently the depression could not have been caused by a reduction in the purchasing power of wages. (2) Other classes suffered far greater cuts in their money returns than wage-earners suffered. Farmers, for instance, suffered a cut of 47 per cent in the prices of their exports in 10.32 as compared with 1928. (3) When our export prices fell by 44.7 per cent, and our import prices by only 9.3 per cent, our power to purchase imports was enormously and calamitously diminished. The fact that the sudden raising of our exchange rate had the effect of causing ns to import even less than our reduced power allowed us does not in the least affect the amount of that, reduction. If "Jay See" can prove from official figures, or estimates, that any one of these statements is wrong I will willingly admit my error. If, however, he persists in giving us nothing better than his own windy assertions, no useful purpose would be served by any further discussion with him. J. JOHXSTOXE.