MAKING ENDS MEET.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 43, 14 November 1907, Page 4

MAKING ENDS MEET.

THE AVOEFUL LAY OF THE LABOURER INCREASED COST OF LIVING. This country is called the working man , * Paradise, but the toiler doesn't seem to appreciate his bliss. He staggers along under a back-bonding load of grievances — somo more or less real—but tho one abiding sorrow that sleeps with him at night, and never leaves him by day, is tho Cost of Living. This ogro raises its hideous head in all sorts of places, and, .of course, .it has bobbed up in the Arbitration Court during tha hearing of the Builders' Labourers' dispute. Every labourer called as a witness had the same tale of woo to unfold —the rise in the price of broad, potatoes, meat, and other necessaries, and more especially the awful ravages of Rent. It was the thorn of rent that pricked them most sorely.

"I get Is. id. an hour when I'vo got work, and 1 have to pay 16s. a weok for rent.' I did manage to get a bit of a house for 10s. a week, but I left when the rain pelted through the roof, and the wind blew the clothes and furniture about. I tried foi five months to get a decent house -at a moderate rent, but I couldn't do it. The only houses to be got were in streets fiitl of places and people that you couldn't take your wife and children amongst. And il you go into the suburbs the tram fared bring the rent to the same thing." His indignation grow as he recounted his tribulations, and he wound up with a virtuous outburst. "We are worse off than slaves, , because the slaves are provided with a home and. a living, but our employers don't do that fov' us."

Another worker followed in the same dolorous key. "I'm paying 14s. 6d. a week for a house at Brooklyn, and four years ago that same house was let at Bs. 6d. a week," he declared. He was quite sure the trams had not improved.matters. ''Why, they'vt made things, worse; they'vo put up 'the rents, and we have to pay tram' fares .as. well,'! hr complained. " I don't; drink or indulge in luxuries, but I have to pinch'- and scraps to meet current expenses." '■ ' ' A couple of Australians drew\ Wight rosy pictures of their own Home, Sweet Home, as compared with this dour land.'. " I'd rather be working for eight bob a day-in Melbourne than eleven bob in this country," one declared. "Over there you can get a pound\ or two together, but here you've never got anything." His compatriot' was equally disgusted. "The cost of living is awful," h: protested. " The other day I went to buy a lettuce, and it cost me 4d.; why, in Sydney you could get a dozen for that..'.' "Hβ added that he was "baching," at a. cost of from 15s. to 17s. a. week; "and on ■ the other side, you could do it for 95." /• ■'.'' After listening to tho dismal stories th'at wera told, one. wondered whether life was worth living. It is not suggested;, of course, that the fact that the men were applying for higher wages had anything to dp with thV harrowing pictures that were painted. .