SCARCITY OF LABOUR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9480, 6 December 1907, Page 5

SCARCITY OF LABOUR.

> ANXIOUS MANUFACTURERS. Are we growing • too 'high-toned, ' or too prosperous?

It. will probably surprise a number of people (says the Wellington Post) to know that there is quite a dearth of labor in this city at present. . The L,abor Department requires, nearly ono hundred laborers for Government and priiate employment; contractors, it is reported, find a difficulty in securing sufficient hands, , and several municipalities are looking for men who can use a pick and" shovel. Not the least hard pressed are the manufacturers. One manufacturer engaged in a big business in this city told a Post reporter that he could give employment to fifty girls. ' Of late he has had, he said, to refuse large numbers of orders simply because he cannot get sufficient hands to do the work.

The difficulty, according to all accounts, is not one of wages. Out of nir.ety hands employed by him only two receive 5s per week, three get 7s 6d, and the majority range from 12s 63 to 20s and 355.

The reason? Well, the employer in question candidly stated that he thinks we are getting too "high-toned" in this country. Girls nowadays will work as typists, or assistants in shops, for a small salary in preference to working in a factory at a wage that will pi./ •fcheir board, clothe them, and leavt a little to spare — gentility before independence ! The solution? The manufacturer in question gave, it as his opinion that the "way out" was the importation of female labor from Home. Obviously, thb difficulties are very great, however. 01-viously, too, while our present standard of prosperity is maintained there cannot be, he said, much- hope of deliverance from the existing condition of things. "Mine is not the only case," he added. "Several other manufacturers in a large way of business are in exactly the same way. Good wages seem tt be no incentive to girls to take up work in factories. We will simply have to go on refusing orders, and continue to make the best of things. " | The whole question of the scarcity of lat"-i % was mentioned to the Minister (two Hon. J. A. Millar) by a deputation which interviewed him privately on Wednesday.

J. H. Nixon and Co.. stot* auctioneers, Wanganui, notify by advertisement that Mr A. Aiken has been, appointed agent for Waver ley and surrounding 'districts.