MUNITIONERS' EARNINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17362, 8 January 1920, Page 9

MUNITIONERS' EARNINGS.

I c Sir, —Occasional observations on the princely earnings of munition workers in t Kngland during the war have, up to the ( present, not been contradicted, especially 6 by the few unfortunate New Zeals.nders who participated in this very neowhry branch of wat service. As one who was on the spot almost from -the time Mr. Lloyd George made his frantic appeal for skilled engineers, I can (•peak from first- < hand knowledge of the condition! and ' wages of munitioners. In order to over- t come, in a measure, the scarcity of skilled f i engineers, the men worked on an average 1 1 300 hours a month. In 1915, the rate of fr pay for skilled engineers (the highest paid ( trade) was Is ljd per hour. In 1916 it j was Is 2Jd. At the date of the signing of the ! rmistice the rate finally reached 1 the munificent sum of Is 3§d per hour. 1 These rates were subject to an additional i bonus of I2i per cent, reward for good , attendance. Many a New Zeuland munitioner had his family in New Zealand and ,

himself in England to support. 'IV high earnings of munition making belonged to tho workers, the men who were* paid for the amount of work performed. The ' earnings of a small minority of thesn were used by lightning calculators as a basis in assessing the earnings of munitioners in genera'. Because a few officers 11 the British Army drew .€ls a week and more, it would be just as absurd to describe the Army as a sen-ice, in which everyone received enormous pay. Sir James Allen probably bad in mind the huge fortunes made by munitioners, when he refused assistance to the wives and children (in New Zealand) of returning munitioners, stranded recently in Sydney, when the Australian Government and Wirth's Circus came to the rescue. Thames. H. 0. Sosikkvei.l.