THE PRICE OF LABOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5387, 21 May 1879, Page 3

THE PRICE OF LABOR.

Sib,— In your issue of Monday last appeared an article with the above title, in which you argue that a lowering of wages would, in the end, be an advantage to the colony, because it would tend to a general lowering of the coßt of the recesgariesof life. With the argument itself I: have 'nothing particularly to do, a.l-V.-iH if:-. 0 --' •'••■'" ■

thottghJfc is a very great question 1 whether storekeepers and: tradesmen generally will endorse itpfor. sonl'e of these latter are apt to believe that high wages for artizans means increased spending power,, and Spending power means brisk Cradle 1 , and Ihat low wages means dull trade, ifou lilighi aldo' fi'hd it hard to" convince artizans generally tnat if they accepted lower wages the necessaries of me would adjust themselves to the different standard," and that the difference in cost would^'ficra be absorbed by the mere holder of cash. That tthieh haa prompted this letter, howeyer',- is riot tAte argument itself, but some 6f tlie' data 1 n'pon 1 Which it ia reared. You Say; ''let uV Supp/oSe tnait a carpenter get 3 30s per vfesk Jh; ifrifcla.n'd, and! £3 in New Zealand." This nWst not by any means ■be assumed.- In 1874-5 dfld part of 1870' 4he' . wages' of, carpenters, masons',- and engineers ffl England' Were $8s per week— B|d per hoiff/ #4 : hours pbr week. In the latter part of '76' afl dflvante'e m wages took place, the trades in questtow getting 9cl per hour, thus bringing thd weekly Wages to £2 Os 6d. Last year an attempt Was roadie to raise this to lOd per hour, but, owing to doifltnercial depression, the Sfe'heme failed ; but in spite of all depression, add ttitlMfgft wo¥li is 1 very scarce, the standard wage iot arfizans in London is £2 per week. So that, when? fan- ask, "if the cost of living is here reduced to the cost of living at home, will not the artizan be aa well off upon £2 per week as he is now upon £3? ". I would ask, what need for the artizan to leave £2 per week at home for £2 here 1 He might as \vell stop where he is. If it be objected that t have given only London rate 9of wage's,- and that they are lower in some pyttS of tile cotfntry, 1. answer that it is a fair criterioil if We ate to take £3 as the average wage here, iot t&ere are parts of New Zealand— Auckland aflci Tatlranga, for instance — where artizans' wages seldom rise beyond 8s per day. It follows, then, that wages instead of being a hundred per cent, higher here than in' England, are hot quite 35 per cent, higher ; and if the difference in the cost of living be taken into account, I fail to see how the countrycan be regarded as a kind of JSI Dorado, pure and simple. In fact — and I make the assertion with confidence; — unless a machanic gets a fair run of work, he would, in any ordinary times, be better off in the large towns of England. You say again/ "if the builder paid his carpenters--30 per cent, less, he would be able tobuild a house much cheaper," Well, I am afraid that, trader no circumstances, could builders work any more cheaply than they have been doing these past few years, for they have cut it so fine that they have cut ' themselves out. : If ariy'person has money, and wishes to find a. ready way of parting with it, I would * advise him to become a builder. — I am, &c, :". ■ . ' •. . - .Mao.: •