GAS EMPLOYEES' DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17330, 29 November 1919, Page 13

GAS EMPLOYEES' DISPUTE.

WAGES AND OTHER COSTS.

THE COMPANY'S STATISTICS.

The Labour Disputes' Investigation Committee, over which Mr. Cutten, S.M., is presiding, was occupied all yesterday' in going into details of the dispute between the Auckland Gas Company and its employees. Statistics placed before the committee hy Mr. James Lowe, engineer and manager of the company, show that the wages paid during last year were £80,564 17s, made up of £6070 charged against, capital expenditure, £13,295 charged against consumers, cartage, and fittings, and £61,199 paid for manufacture, distribution, management, and residuals. The capital expenditure was £1,024,269, and last year ' dividend amounted to £55,039, which was only 5.39 per cent, upon the capital spent. The total receipts for the year were £271,767 17s 7d. Of this the wages bill £61,199. represented 22.5 per cent. The cost of coal was £99,987, or 56.8 per cent. of the receipts, and this was chiefly a labour charge, including costs of all handling at the mines, and on the railways, wharves, and ships. Material used for maintenance and repairs cost another £17.477, 6.4 per cent, of the receipts, and £2738 went in_ general charges, of which the chief were insurance and compensation to workers. Another 10 per cent, of the receipts were involved in land and income tax. £26,461, and local rates absorbed £3735 of what was left.

The committee will again sit to-day.