ADVANTAGE OF GOOD WAGES FOR WORKERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 13 June 1927, Page 3

ADVANTAGE OF GOOD WAGES FOR WORKERS

To t,tie Editor!

Sir,—For the benefit l; f my fellow fanners I noliee thai the necessary mcntiil atmosphere is bcMiijf created liy the agents of tho Well-led League, in the minds of (he farmers. J am a fanner myself; have perhaps as much experience of the .litl'uiiltus of the man who lia.s lo get a living from the soil as most of those who aic willing lo I,:' the cat'spaws for big hm-incs in howling for ri'c 11it-i-< 1 wages ami refnriiiaiion of llic Arbitration Court. I can remember when wages wore 5/- per day for roadmen in (he Nelson 'district, and I have known a man working on a farm for two years t'dr 12 - a week and his hoard and lodging and ill was considered good wages. When 1 started for myself 1 eonld keep myself ("baching")' for seven shilling a week. When the road to the Boiler over the Hope Saddle was being made f helped to make the road up the Clarke Valley and we were supplied with meal, delivered at our camp twice a week by Newport Brothers, either beef or million, for l!.',d per Jh. For several years butter was as low as 4d per lb, bacon the .same, eggs say fid per dozen, and cull sheep 2/6 and sometimes unsaleable at thai. ' Wool was from Gd to Bd, and for butter, bacon and eggs it was all taken out with the storekeeper —no cash. Farmers in those days seldom left their farms. Alost of them worked 365 days a year, nod until 1 was a man I did not own two pairs of boots at one time. Contrast these conditions (arid remember they were common to most of the bona fide farmers'of that time) with the conditions existing to-day, and ask yourselves who are your best customers? is it the Chambers of Commerce or any of the class who got quite a good time out of

the profit Lney rmil e out • either handhug your piouuce ui ti.e goods they supply to you? lou complain about the .•ale of wages, but what :-?bout profits": A plough 1 bought r.VeiHy-ihe years ago for £7/10/- is being .jUoted by the same firm to-day at £*6. Mo, Gentlemen, you must look for your best customers in the workiilg class—those who are doing some useful service for their fellows ami for two reason;?. One is thai they are probably as ten lo one in numbers as compared to the rest of the population, and as a rule have quite as large families to support and because most of them spend most of their earnings on what they consider the necessaries of life. That being so it should be apparent, with the facts I have given of former conditions, to come to the conclusion that good wages for workers is goo,! business for farmers, and vice versa. This being a question we are all interested in it behoves us to look all round it.—l am, etc., J. W. WIN. Awa. 10th June.