Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17th. 1928. WORK AND WAGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1928, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17th. 1928. WORK AND WAGES

yiiE conference being held in the Motherland between representatives of Capital and Labour, to endeavour to promote greater peace and goodwill in industry, is being followed with close interest in various parts of the Empire, and in no country more so than New Zealand. The question has naturally arisen if what is being attempted in Britain cannot be also tried here. At Christchurch, to-day, Mr. W. Cecil Prime, on behalf of Dominion employers, issued a statement (published in another column of this issue) appealing to workers to consider the possibility of agreeing to a five years’ truce, where Arbitration Court awards are concerned, the principal clause being one providing that no attempt be made, during the truce, to increase or decrease wages, or working hours. Mr. Prime covers the ground from the employers’ viewpoint, and there is no need to repeat his arguments here. They are worth consideration, and it is to be hoped that all workers will reflect on what is placed before them.

It cannot be expected that Mr. Prime’s proposals will be received with enthusiasm by trade unionists and workers generally, and it is easy to imagine the use the extremists in the ranks will make of the proposal. For the workers, it can be said that the wages now received leave little balance to provide for days of trouble and abnormal expenses, which come, sooner or later, to every household. Even those who refrain from extravagance or waste, find that at the end of each twelve months, they are little better off than at the beginning, and this fact tempts them to listen to those who urge that they should demand higher wages. The average worker is not eager to be aggressive, nor unreasonable, and he realises that there are limits to the expenditure a trade or business can incur if it is to be successfully carried on. Too low wages are preferable to unemployment. What the workers really desire is to have increased the purchasing power of the present wages. Postwar effects are responsible for some of the higher cost of living, but it would take many statements to convince the wage-earner that it is necessary to charge him so much for some of the items he has to purchase. The primary products, grown so profusely in this country, should, he thinks, be much cheaper to New Zealanders themselves, but he notes the tendency is to maintain the high prices, and even increase them. His tobacco and sugar are but two commodi-

ties that appear lo be controlled by

those who demand far too much for these articles. He is told that his boots and shoes will soon cost him at least ten per cent, more, owing to “a shortage of leather,” although (to quote one leading boot retailer) “it. is very difficult to understand why there should be a shortage.” So many qf these price-increases are “difficult to understand,” that it is not surprising the worker imagines that he is being exploited, and that he is entitled to demand more wages. Whatever the reception given to Mr. Prime’s proposals it cannot be intelligently denied that it is in the interest of both employer and employed, to keep expenditure, whether on wages or other outgoings, within reasonable limits, nor can it be denied that the worker is entitled to obtain for his labour something more than a bare subsistence for himself and his dependents. Whilst attention is focussed principally on the wages paid, little progress in the solution of industrial problems will be made. Employers must co-operate more with the employed to keep down the cost of living. In that they would show their sincerity, which at present, unfortunately, is not, wholeheartedly accepted by the employed. The question is huge, and will require years to deal with satisfactorily. Progress depends upon mutual goodwill.