WOMAN’S WORK AND WAGES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10217, 11 December 1893, Page 6

WOMAN’S WORK AND WAGES.

'lO THE EDITOE. Sib,—Your issue of last Saturday contains an item of news from a sister Colony which brings uppermost in one’s mind tha vexed question of woman’s work and wages. The Railway Department ia Victoria has saved £IO,OOO per annum by engaging women as station masters (or mistresses) in country districts, and, encouraged by the obvious economy of the new arrangement, is going in still further for woman labour. Two things are perhaps noteworthy in this piece ot nows—first, the retrenchment is being carried out not amongst the highly-paid officials of tha service, but amongst the station masters ia country districts, whose pay must of necejsity bo comparatively small; and, secondly, this employment of cheap labour on a large scale ia being initiated iu a Colony which endeavours, by discouraging the arrival of Chinese, to prevent the reduction of the standard of wages which would follow their competition with European labour. And herein is exposed one of the curious inconsistencies which one so often finds in the social and econo mical ideas and practice of the logical, enlightened Briton. He protests with all bis might against the admission of the hardworking Mongolian, and is prepared to levy a poll tax up to £SOO per head to check the influx of these immigrants ; and tho ground of hia' action in this matter :s not primarily time they are ditty or immoral, but because their competition with him iu certain trades tends to lower the average wages paid in Chose particular trades. And yet, in a Colony where this is • considered a burning question, the Government stultifies itself and'betrays the desires of the people by the employment on a vast scale of Anglo-Saxon cheap labour, and reduces tho standard of wages upon tha paltry pretext of effecting a saving of expenditurs which should rather havo been ■. ffectsd by the application of the pruning knife to redundant officialism and extravagant dis-

play. Wo are not quite so bad here in New Zealand, yet evidence is not wanting that there is room for considerable improvement in public sentiment in this respect. It ia a well-known fact that the salaries paid by cur Boards of Education to women teachers are invariably lower than those paid to men. If I am not mistaken, the seme ia the case as regards tho women employed in the Postal Department. Again, there are ladies of means and position in this city who consider half-a crown ample, if not excessive, pay for eight hours’ needlework, not by apprentices but by proficient needlewomen. Now contrast this with the average pay for a day’s gardening, say 6s. Why should there bo this difference? Needlework ia aa Htiguing to the average woman aa gardening to the man, the time occupied ia the came, tho labour equal, albeit of a different character, and both, demand expertness ia their particular lines; yet the pay for a day’s work by a woman ia loss than half that p-iicl to a man for tho ssmo period. In tho cats of teaching there is of course tho competition between men aud women, but in "tho example I have given this cannot be alleged as tha reason; each is an expert at their particular employment, and neither could compete with the other in that work. Surely there is soma economical or ethical fallacy underlying these dircrapaneies. If the wo man can do any particular work as efficiently as a man, she should receive equal remuneration ; if not, she should not be employed on the ground of cheapness, since unskilled or inefficient work is dear at any price. There would seem to be some inherent belief prevalent that a man’s work ia of necessity more valuable than a woman’s. What ground there is for this | belief it is difficult to say, and one can only classify it aa part of the general idea that a man, physically, mentally and morally, i ia of more value than a woman. Happily, 1 this idea ia being relegated to the limbo of medieval superstitions, eo there is room for hope that before very long women ! workers will be paid for tha expenditure i of their best energies at rates bused upon , some broader and juster principle cf; equality between the aeses than yet : obtains. Here is a field for the labours of | the newly enfranchised cit sens of this country; Ist them aim at setting to tbs older countries tho example of equal pay for equal ear vice, irrespective of sex or nationality.—l am, Ac., JOHN BBNDELY.