Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1909. THE REWARD OF INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8858, 28 April 1909, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1909. THE REWARD OF INDUSTRY.

The Government has very properly declined to interfere in regard to the exertion wage on the Otira Tunnel contract. The contractors, in order to push their work forward with all expedition, pay a bonus to the men 1 if they exceed a certain standard in the amount of progress' made. The men are well satisfied with this arrangement, the contractors are satisfied, and the system operates to the benefit of both parties. As the contractors point out, no more men would be employed if no bonus was, paid; The tunnel will only allow certain sized gangs to work at one time. The only effect of the exertion wage in the case under notice is to complete the tunnel at the earliest possible date, a result desired by the employers and men alike. The only dissatisfied party is. the Wellington Trades and Labour Council, which evidently on "general principles" objects to smart and efficient workmen being paid a higher wage than their more careless fellows'. The limitation of the output has become so essential an article of its economic beliefs that the Trades and Labour Council sees nothing wrong in the practice of its pernicious doctrine. In many industries already the idea prevails 'that the workers are helping themselves by proceeding about their duties in a dilatory fashion, and that in some strange manner their position is improved by the production of a smaller portion of wealth. It is regrettable that this vicious attitude should be adopted to any great extent. The levelling-down tendency of the Arbitration system is bad enough in its effects, putting as it does the worker and the shirker, the strenuous, willing man and the indolent, inefficient one on the same level. But when it conies to decreeing that no employer shall reward special diligence and efficiency, it is time to call a halt. Yet this is what the Trades and Labour Council wants, and tin putting forward such a request it proclaims itself to be the enemy rather than the friend of the worker. The men at Otira evidently are not influenced by the extravagant views of these Wellington extremists, and it is satisfactory to find the Government declining to identify itself with views that can only operate to the detriment of industrial efficiency. The official reply to the protest of the, Trades Council was that there was no intention on the part of the Public Works Department to interfere in a matter between the contractors and their employees so long as the contractors paid Arbitration Court award wages. This is, of course, the only reasonable decision that could be arrived at. The Government so seldom resists the demands of organised labour, however, that it is pleasing to be able to notice those rare occasions when it has the firmness to act adversely to the desires of the Union.