FULL RESTORATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 June 1936, Page 5

FULL RESTORATION

CUTS IN WAGES TO OPERATE FROM Ist JULY (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. A reply to doubts which have been, expressed in certain quarters regaid- • ing the Government’s intentions to restore to the full all wages and salary cuts as from Ist July was made by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) yesterday. ' “The legislation will be passed as soon as Parliament meets, and it will be retrospective to Ist July,” he said. Mr Savage recalled the statement he had made in the House earlier this month when he had said that during the recess it was the Government’s, intention to prepare legislation for the restoration of wages cuts, Public Service salary cuts, and pensions as from the beginning of July. “I said that deliberately so that employers of labour would know what to expect and would not have any reason for saying that we ‘sprang’ something on them,” he said. It was the Government’s intention to_ restore all cuts made during the depression, he said, which in effect, would bring the wage, salary, and pension level up to that of 1931.

“We are pledged to do more than that,” said Mr Savage. “We are pledged to make available to the people the benefit of every increase in production. If. that, is not done, there is no reason for increasing production. It can only be done by increasing incomes for the rank and file of the people—increasing wages, salaries, and pensions. To say that we are going to restore the cuts and stop there is not telling the whole story.” Mr Savage said that had there been time, the wage restoration legislation would have been passed before Parliament adjourned. The Government felt it was bound to pass the legislation as soon as it could be done. The next best thing was to make it retrospective.