THE RATE OF WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12070, 13 September 1902, Page 3

THE RATE OF WAGES.

Tints subject has afforded matter for dispute from the day when first one.man hired another, and will probably continue to do so until we have developed into creatures as unlike what we are now as our present state is unlike that of the jellyfish. . And yet, stripped of sentiment (with which it has really nothing to do) the ease is simple enough. The labourer sells hi- labour for the most money he can set for it, and the capitalist sells his money for the most labour he can get for it, the natural rate of wages being found midway between these two antagonistic forces. But many will not have it so, importing into t-hc argument all sorts of irrelevant considerations. It is the custom of a certain London merchant to refuse ail increase of salary to an employee who presumes to ask, for it, regarding any such request as impertinent, while those who don't ask he says don't need it. That merchant is difficult to deal with, yet there is a way to deal with him and his like. The employee who is full of energy, with a thorough mastery of the. affairs entrusted to him. will never want for employment and fair pay- Where one employer will let him go, ten others will bo eager to grin hold of him, for there are none too many of his kind. Win are Mich men scarce? Tim answer is ready: Energy can eo-cxisl only with health. Take the case of Mr. August .laii.-.an, of Karabury Station, near Hay. N.S.W., an unquestionably industrious man, who used to be laid aside from time to time. Writing on January ?:>), 1002, Mr. Jansan says:—"Towards the close of 1899 we had extremely hot - weather in this part of Riverina. day after dav the thcrmomentcv registering 100 deg. to 120 deg. Fahr. in the shade. My occupation (that of station carpenter) compelled me to spend the greater portion of my time exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, a bust to which I attribute my subsequent sufferings. The first symptom was a sensation of. sickness at the stomach on rising in the morning, and a distaste, almost amounting t.i a, loathing, for food of whatever kind Then I became alarmed by acute pains in the region of the heart. The bowel.-, too, were very irregular in their action, extreme co.-iireness alternating with violent purging. I could not cat, and for want of proper nourishment became so weak that 1 could hardly stand. Frequently I had to lay up entirely, neglecting hiywoVk for days at a time. Each week marked a change for the worse in my condition, a.id to my other symptoms were soon added sick headaches and terrible pains about the chest, all of which made me nervous, low-spirited, and irritable. After ineffectually taking as -.much patent medicine as would till'a sheep tank, 1 placed myself in the rare of a doctor, who informed me that I was suffering from acute indigestion, and that my nervous system was shattered. lie attended me for twelve mouths, .it the cud of which time I was worse than when T first consulted him. Although only a little over fifty years of age, 'I fell like a worn-out old man, and had not the strength of a -rear-old lad. I began to think I was beyond the aid of medicine, when a. friend of mine, v. ho had used Mother Seigol's Curative Syrup with much benefit, persuaded me, to try it. 1 agreed, and found relief from almost the first'close. Br the time I had taken two bottles 1 knew that L was fairly on the road to health. Mv strength returned much quicker than it had departed. Before the sixth bottle was emptied I was restored to a thoroughly healthy and robust condition. I could cat, sleep, and work without distress or even discomfort. It is now six months since my cure was completed, when I gave up taking the Syrup regularly: but, as a precaution, I still take a coup'.- of doses ! every week. Many other persons in this dis- ■ trict' have taken it, on my recommendation, and in no case has it failed."