LIVING WAGE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 4, 5 July 1928, Page 15

LIVING WAGE

»S £4 A WEEK ADEQUATE ? "PARADISE FOR WORKERS" (By Telegraph.) .(Special to "The Evening Post") DUNEDIN, This Day. Can a man earning £4 weekly, and with n family dependent on him, make ends moot? A short debato on the question took place at tlic Conciliation Council sitting yesterday, when the quarry, workers' claims were disputed. When asking that the workers should be paid for holidays, Mr. B. Harrison said the,men were unable to make ends meet. ■.'■'" .'' ■, "Who paid £20,000 towards the Labour Party's fund?" asked' Mr. A. S. Cookson (employers' agent). Mr. Harrison: "The employers." Mr. Cookson: "Tho employers'? The workers paid the money, yet you talk about their not being able to make ends meet. They can find the money for that purpose." "I know they cannot pay their way when they get £4 a. week," replied Mi. Harrison. "After paying £1 for rent, I'm blessed if I can sco where a hmu; with a-1" family can make--ends meet." ' .':'..• •: ... Mr. C. A. Shicl said the New Zealand agitators should be placed on a boat and sent on a tour of th. Continent to investigate the conditions under which the workers were employed. New Zealand was a paradise for the workers. Mr. Harrison: "Do you mean to say. that'if you were in power, you would' not consider the state of affairs in the Dominion could be improved!" Mr. Shiol: "They are my iueal." Mr. Harrison said it had been conclusively proved that when the' conditions of the working population , were improved, greater prosperity' for the nation followed, but the workers .had to continually fight against . such arguments as had been raised by, the other side. "It is not tho distribution of wealth we are fighting against," he said. "Wo are fighting so that the workers will get a greater proportion. There are 285 millions of national wealth in lNew' Zealand, and we are fighting for the distribution of that." Mr. Shiel: "Why not make the workers the owners?" "Perhaps we will do ( that some day," stated the workers' agent. "This is called a Conciliation^Council,: but-1 cannot see where conciliation has come in."