ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20076, 4 November 1930, Page 13

ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT.

- • To> TBI EDITOR OV THE PEESS. Sir, —After, reading the remarks of I'M&grs Agar, Cameron, and Maehin at Sthe recent -conference of the Chambers , of Commerce, held at the Hermitage, Mt.vCook, it is a pleasure to read the .remarks of Mr H. Colonna,_in your issue; of. Saturday, November Ist. In j •»pite. of - the capacity of the leaders of fie. Chamber, I have conie to the conclusion' that Mr Colonna has a saner 'spew, of the subject. If they think they ;jan solve the-problem by simply reducing wages and increasing the hours of labourj they are living in a fool's parage, which will get them nowhere and only aggravate the difficulty. Instead of creating goodwill amongst the working daas - they will only antagonise them a-period when industrial rest is urgently essential. Germany only a few years _ a<fo re- : i daced - wages and increased the hours of labour to ten hours a day, but it &iled miserably, 'and the latest figures . quoted only a few davs ago showed that.three million (3,000,000) people Vera out- of employment. Yet every r . lioSy knows that the Germans arc among the most industrious and thrifty people of -Europe, i: J ' It"ill becomes people to advocate the Reduction of the average worker's wage, while they themselves are in receipt ■;of handsome salaries. If they cannot 'live in oom fort able circumstances i® - ■less,-how can they expect the average "worker to live on less than the present average wage, and surely he is en.titled to o decent standard of living the same as they. They tell us that they .do not want the worker's standard of living* lowered. That will deceive n° one.. They must know that to lower h;s is to lower his standard of living. I-wohld draw attention to the report, the,annual meeting of the New Zealand Bubbcr Co. (Malay), held in Oaaaru'last week, when both the man*B*s?. and secretary asked to have their .-salaries Teduced by half, until conditions improved. If others who talk about fc'te economic ■ position would do the same - it would go further with the sensible than all the idle talk in<lalged« in bv the Chamber of Cornsneree. Maehin advocated in his address ; that the. worker Bhould accept lower and worlv longer hours. Does ue think that the worker is a machine and ean be worked any number of hours his employer chooses? Messrs Agar and ®a^hin-are both heads of firms who a large amount of labour. Will th> & honestly tell me that they will ; 'Wore out of their employees by logger hours than the emplojyr who SSTfe employees shorter bours>! ;• get more out of a tired the one who is fresh to start * Experts have proved, time that eight hours of manualI * -by. the willing worker will be than the labour of one •"? 'Works nine or ten hours daily, bethe. tired worker is an economic waste.

Ve are told, of course, that the farmj,.pay the wages ruling at the relent day. I don't suppose he can

when he pays ,€7o or £IOO an acre for land which is worth, at the outside, £oU, especially when lie also pays fictitious jirices for stock, besides, paying the mortgagee anything lip to 7 or/S per eent. for his money. But why waste sympathy on farmers who do snoh things as these? —Yours, etc., WORKIXG-AIAN. November 3rd, 1930.