COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2703, 24 February 1916, Page 6

COST OF LIVING.

Sir,—l notice in the daily newspapers that the Haihvay Union (A.S.R.S.) is milking a "reat noise about >he cost of living,_ and have passed a resolution to petition for la. per day increase, and to tax the farmers with tho amount. It is a wonder to me these men do not go on tho land slid have a try themselves. I am afraid they would be like myself and a ieiv others who left the service—glad to receive a call to return to duty while the Empire is at war, There arc niauy exrailwaymen who have mado' big sacriliccs by giving up their line of business and accepting casual work until trie war is over. What sacrifices ar; fthese men making? None whatever rliey call meetings on. a Sunday tt cause dissatisfaction among their menu bers. The lowest wage-earner in. the (second Division is paid at the rate of 9s. per day, and an engine-driver receives as much as 14b. and 15s. per day. As a matter of fact, iliese men' are better off than the ordinary waking man outside tho railway. If the railwaymen making the noise about the cost ;of living would study the commercial columns of the newspapers and see what the price of oats, chaff, and' poultry feed is, they would bo better ■ omployed. The majority of the farmers at the present time are only struggling for an existence, and a gcri! many glad to get out of it. I am" not' writing this letter in defence of ,lha fanner, but merely to show the A.k.K.S. that its members are not the worst paid men in New Zealand, not by' a long way.—l am, etc., : _ CASUAL 'HAND, i eliding, February 21, 1916.