"A FAIR DEAL"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1936, Page 8

"A FAIR DEAL"

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln reply to "Four Aces," only yesterday the Hon. Peter Fraser said that the working people of New Zealand, now that Labour held the Treasury benches, were beginning to j receive a better deal, a share of the) country's wealth. This naturally would mean' taxation: those who had plenty, are to be taxed for the benefit of the great majority with little. Surely this suits "Four Aces," unless, like those to be taxed, he holds four aces. : In relation to "Four Aces'" reference to the forty-hour week and Saturday work. As a building trades worker I will be one who is to enjoy the forty-hojur week from this week on. I know* definitely that I will have the endorsement of at least the great majority of fellow industrial workers when I say that we whole-heartedly appreciate the forty-hour five-day week in spite of the fact that our average wage per year is exceedingly low, due to weather conditions. For instance, it has previously been pointed but through your columns, Sir, that the weekly average wage of building trades labourers for the past twelve months was £2 12s per week, and this average has been officially accepted as correct by the executive of the Wellington General Labourers, so that we see that even when the basic wage comes into operation and fixed on a weekly basis outside workers will gain very little. Nevertheless, as stated, we welcome the five-day week as a great step forward for the workers, and as to time lost through wet weather, there is one remedy: that is the fixing of a weekly minimum-wage. Finally, I agree that Australia is reducing the taxation of the "haves" at the expense of the "have nots."—l am, etc., PROLETARIAN. (To the Editor.) Sir.—The correspondent, "Four Aces," is apparently an egotist, ■ for looking at his cards one may safely say "the deuce you have," one being the "two." Regarding his reference to a bachelor tax, which evidently he favours, the single man has, throughout the depression, been the stray dog. Driven from pillar to post, then finishing up in a backwoods swamp, many have become soured young men, which one can read in their faces. In many cases he has met the "lovely girl" just breaking out of her teens, like himself. As kindred spirits they form a compact, get married, struggle along in rooms on relief pay, knowing it to be the only way out. Our normal j young single life should be a preparation financially for the married state, but abnormal social conditions have made him their victim. The abnormal condition of war marks him at once for its first sacrifice, which this writer shared in small measure. On his return sickness with personal and social depression strike him. New superficial thinkers ask for another piece of him in taxation!—l am, etc., "ANTI HUMBUG."