THE EXERTION WAGE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 242, 6 July 1908, Page 9

THE EXERTION WAGE.

REPLY TO DR. FINDLAY. ' Mr. T. E. Taylor, .writing to Christchurch "Press" on' Dr. Jfindlay's recent speech, describes it as tho utteranco, of a special pleader. Tlie primary object to bo served, lie says, by Dr. Findlay's elaborate arguments is tho acceptance by tho wage-earn-ing class of th©' theory ofan "exertion wage" which is to be embodied in legislation this year. Dr.. Findlay omits-tho earnings of the farming class from his calculations. "We hear about tho incomes of tho 10,420 persons, : traders and. manufacturers, who pay income-t'ax upon £10,105,573, but no details aro. given of the wealth' earned by tho land-owning class. .This omission _is fatal to any argument affecting national'interests, and reduces Dr. ' Findlay's statement to that of a class' or sectional argument, not counting the thousands of men in Now Zealand who are earning incomes of varying amount'as lessees of land, Crown lands, and' lands owned by societies and public bodies. There are over ' 45,000 owners of freehold land, covering eighteen and a half million acres of land, of which tho unimproved value is nearly seventy million pounds sterling. Out of these 45,000 freeholders there are about 24,000 owning from 100 acres up to 100,000 acres cach, tho. unimproved. value of which is nearly sixty-one million'pounds sterling. A discussion of tho question of how the- question stands relating to our national wealth, which discussion deliberately excludes land, tho primary sourco of tho wealth of this and all other countries, is essentially -weak, because the foundation for tho discussion is obviously defective." As for tho exertion wage, Mr. Taylor says it may bo a desirablo factor in our industrial system, but it is worthy of note that tho application of tho principle in tho industrial system of America is said to have been so successful that men aro eliminated'from the ranks of industrial workers boforo thoy aro fifty years old.