WHANGAREI MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

Northern Advocate, 30 June 1888, Page 3

WHANGAREI MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

On Friday, 22nd of June, the business of the evening was a debate, which is the best for the colony " A high or a low rate of wages." Mr J. D. McKenzie, Vice-president, occupied the chair. The debate was opened in the affirmative by Mr It. McKenzie, who contended that the man who did the work was of more importance to the community than the man who supplied the capital. Wages therefore should be better paid thau interest on capital. Again, a well paid workman would be better looked after than one ill paid, his tools would be better and more work uould bo produced. Considering that all wealth came from labour, this was a point of the grreat importance. Some people thought that it was an advantage to have a number of idle people in a country, such as Government officials to act as consumers. This was a mistake. Every idle man in a country helped to impoverish it. It was the people who did the -work who enriched it and their interest should be considered first. Mr D. C. Wilson followed in the negative. He contended that high wages had a tendency to kill farming and local industries, the result was little or no employment, ana distress in the towns of the colony. Farming could not be carried on without hired labour, neither could the face of the country be improved as it should be. If a farmer now employed labour his ruin was only a question of time, and he asked the class if this was a happy or a desirable state of affairs when a mau could not employ labour without being ruined. The high wages which had ruled for some years past had been caused not by the natural prosperity of the country, but by the expenditure of the borrowed money, and they would have to go back to what they were 30 years ago. Mr BtrcxHiTßST said it paid fanners in the South to employ labour. The North was not a farming country, and if a farmer was ruined in the North by employing labour it proved nothing He believed in high wages ana short hoars. The first enabled men to live in comfort, and the second gave them time for mental culture. When people were .overworked and underpaid life becomes a harden, and such a state of affairs was followed by a revolution. He instanced cases where high wages had enabled careful men to buy places of their own. [Almost every working man might do the same. If the majority of working men did not benefit by increase of pay it was their own fault, and the fact should not be quoted as an argument against high wages. Mr Sealey contended that high wages conduced most to the pjj^sperity of the whole community, because tho" "working people who formed the majority were enabled to purchase more, and the large amount of money put in circulation would benefit trade. As a deplorable cause of distress in London he instanced the case of a numDer of women who were trying to earn a living by making toothpicks at the rate of 1/3 a thousand, and then they had to make 1400 to the 1000. This state of affairs was no more desirable than the ruin of the farmers. He thought, however, that the high rate of interest did more to kill farming and local industries than the high rate of wages. Mr Milne said it was estimated that if every man worked four hours per day enough food would be produced to keep the world going. The men therefore who worked eight or ten hours did more than their share; and they should participate largely in all profits arising from labour. He did not think that farming in the North was killed by high wages. It was bscause it was not so suitable for farming as other places. He believed tho present depression was caused by importing from other countries were labour was cheap. Mr N. (i. McKay objected to some of the speakers harrowing", up the feelings of the audience i»y quoting extreme cases of low wages and distress in the Old Country. The debate did not apply to the Old Country people who were a nation of white slaves. Mr H. McKenzie in his reply retorted that { a low rate of wages would enable capitalists to bring their white bremern of New Zealand into slavery too. ' $ Mr D. C. Wilson explained that a rate of wages not sufficient to support people in comfort should be condemned by everyone. The debate lay between a moderately high rate, and a moderately low rate. The question was then put to the vote first of the class, and afterwards of the whole audience. In each case the result was a large majority in favour of high wages. The subject for to-night (Friday), the 29th, will be an address by the Rev. B. Hutson. On Friday, July 6th, the subject will be a debate, "Is a lawyer who knowingly defends a bad case guilty as an accomplice." This debate is expected to come rough on the lawyers. ___^^______ ■