LABOUR AND WAGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21577, 23 August 1933, Page 13

LABOUR AND WAGES

Sir, —May I voice my thoughts on reading Mr. letter, appearing in your issue of Tuesday. Why all this antipathy expressed against reduced hours and increased wages, bringing the working population 011 a more assured basis of consumption, 1 fail to ■ discover. Surely the urge to build solidly and universally rather than individually should be the aim of to-day 3 deeds. Where else better tp begin than at the bottom, tho man who does tho initial work, the major consumer, namely, tho working man. Youf - coirespondent does not realise wo are to-day working shorter hours than ever owing ,to the largo number of unemploj'Gu. While, regarding wages, they are such as to permit the remainder to subscribe to the maintenance of the unemployed. ' Which, I ask, is the more conducive to / prosperity: 125 men at £4 a six hours a day, or 100 men at £5 a week at eight hours <1 day, contributing just sufficient to keep the other 25 in bare necessities, and at the same time losing their spending confidence for fear of joining tho ranks of thoso 25i Perhaps your correspondent would prefer us to institute Japanese wages, hours • and mode of living. H. G. Hii.l.