DOMAIN BOARD AND THE WAGE QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12570, 3 August 1901, Page 4

DOMAIN BOARD AND THE WAGE QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, attention has been .'drawn fg your report of the meeting of the Domain! Board held on Monday, July 22, in whidhi Air Jacques is reported as having said that four men in the Board’s employ were in receipt of 5s per day, park ranger £6 5s per m'onth and house, head gardener £l2 10s per month. Now, the chairman evidently forgot to mention the fact that the head gardener also had a free house and; as much firewood as he was able to- burn. With, re* gard to the four men at ss, he made the statement that no deductions were made for time lost. lam most reliably informed all time lost by these men is deducted from their wages, except in one case, when a man was allowed half-time fpr a few daysillness. In fact, these men are often seen going horn® at night drenched to the skin through being compelled to work out in the rain or lose their big wage of 5s per day. The Chairman must have meant that no deduction was made for the four, days’holidays'the Board axe generous enough to give the men during the year. The Hon C. C. Bowen apparently went .out of his way to misrepresent these four men by stating most of them were old men .who, if they left the Board’s service, would 1 find great difficulty in obtaining work elsewhere. Now, I have no personal acquaintance with any of the four men, but ant positively assured that the remarks made by the honourable gentleman are a gross li'pel. There is not an old man amongst them, their ages ranging from twenty to forty-eight years. Being able-bodied men, they should have no difficulty in obtaining work anywhere where work was to be dene. As a matter of fact, the only a-gedl person in the Board’s employ is the head gardener, who probably may have been in Mr Bowen’s mind’s eye when he made those unkind remarks. Both the Chairman, Mr Jacques, and the Hon C. C. Bowen are either ignorant of the true state of affairs or are trying to bluff the public and the other members of the Board. It is always supposed to be an easy matter to “gull” the public, but members of the Board surely will not permit so disgraceful a state of affairs to exist any longer than is ’absolutely necessary, now their attention haa been drawn to the true state of affairs.—a I am, etc., J. A. M’CULLOUGH.