County Councils and Wage Rates

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 5

County Councils and Wage Rates

Sir, —The published report of the proceedings of the last meeting of the Rangitikei County Council'indicated to the casual reader that this county council had been a fairy godmother to its employees. The fact of the matter ig that the Rangitikei County pays a lower rata of wages than the majority of the other local bodies in the Dominion. The rate per hour is 1/6, and this has been made possible through the operations ot Section 155 of the old I.U. and A. Act, held there by Governments of which Cr. Stuart was a member.

In an embittered speech Councillor Stuart made scornful reference to the electors -who chose to elect a Government pledged to ensure a decent standard of living for the people of New Zealand. He forgets that the people as a whole, including the electons of Rangitilwi, by their decision in November last, asserted

the right of every person giving useful service, having a fair return for his labour —not the one-nnd-sixpenny standard of himself and the majority of his fellow-councillors. At the same meeting Mr. Mair, the engineer of the county, was reported t-i have said that it was impossible to apply award to county councils, and ho instanced several Items of work and the interchangeability of county labour. But the verj’ items mentioned by Air. Alair are covered by every labourers’ award in New Zealand, under some of which several county councils and local bodies have been operating for years! The General Labourers’ National Federation i.s now proceeding for a separate Dominion award for county councils. All counties are being cited, and provisions will be made for the peculiarities and special requirements of county councils and their employees, and in the words of Mr. C. L. Hunter, M.P. (Manawatu), “The decent counties have nothing to fear, but backward counties should be brought into line.” I commend the very fair statement of Mr. D. R. Hoggard (chairman of the Hutt county) when the same matter was being discussed by that body nt its last meeting, and contrast the attitude of the Hutt county to that of Rangitikei.—l am, etc., P. M. BUTLER. Sec., Naional Federation of General Labourers. Wellington, May 19.