WAGES AND MICA

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12662, 16 September 1904, Page 5

WAGES AND MICA

VtfiWS OF THE SECttETAtIY FOR LABOUR. a . "MALIGNANT COLLATERAL ACTION." SUGGESTED CURE FOR HIGH RENTS. [by telegraph.—special CORRESPONDENT.] I Wellington, Thursday. A cfriuoirsi.v-WORD'ED circular, issued by Mr. Tregear, Secretary for Labour, states that the Arbitration Act is not working under fair and impartial conditions, nor is its beneficent power available to the full in tho cause of public utility. The work of the Court, he proceeds, is being neutralised by malignant collateral action. It is like an edifice, the foundations of which ar* being destroyed by cunning miners working from every side. The benefits to the employer (of stability of business), and to the worker (of*higher wages and shorter hours), are rapidly becoming neutralised, and soon only the empty shell of an apparent prosperity will be left if the unbridled covetousness ot a few be not regulated and checked. The rise in. the price of. the necessaries of life has been out of all proportion to the rise in wages. Some said the reason for the increased cost of necessaries was due to th; rise ot wages, but Mr. Tregear thought it was the increased cost of necessaries that had caused the concession of higher wage®. There was, moreover, a third hand at the game, the non-producing ground landlord of city and suburban property, who alone would rise a winner in the end. The chief devourer of tho wages of the worker and profits of the employer was excessive rent. It was unauthorised taxation by private persons, a tribute to a conqueror, and ransom of a captive. In Wellington, as a general rule, one-third of the income went to the landlord. Even the farmers indirectly suffered by such mulcting of wages, for less farm produce was consumed when the spending power of the masses was checked and directed aside into the private hanking accounts ot the owners of city and suburban lands. "With the above considerations in mind," concludes Mr. Tregear, "I very earnestly ask the Government to take into consideration the question of legislating for the acquirement of suburban lands, and the housing of the citizens. Some scheme should be earnestly pondered over, having for its determination the breaking up of the land ring. It is beyond doubt that the advantages bestowed by progressive legislation are gradually being nullified, and will eventually be destroyed by certain adverse influences. These influences must be sought out and neutralised fearlessly and effectively in the interests of all classes of workers."