LABOUR AND WAGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 15

LABOUR AND WAGES

Sir, —I 'was pleased to read in Tuesday's Herald a letter from Mr. Melliop. He has sized up the position very fairly. The cost of production has been the chief cause of so much unemployment. When things began to go off I wrote a number of letters to the press ihowing the evils of the Arbitration Court, and preference to unionists. If the Court had been wiped out at that time and everything been allowed to come to the 1914 level I don't think we would have more than a-quar-ter of the unemployed that we have to-day. It is surely better to have 1000 men employed at 10s than 500 at 20s. The farmers woiild hare got along very well at the low prices if the goods that they bought had been handled by men drawing half the wages. There was no .talk-of starvation wages in 1914. Most people were quite satisfied, and everything was much cheaper. Cottages that could be built for £2OO have been costing £BOO and otfer. This argument of high \s;ages giving more purchasing power is all nonsense. A man is not compelled to spend more than it costs him to live. There are only about three things that are at all likely to pull us through our present trouble, viz., large reduction in the cost of Government, also the cost of production and a considerable reduction in taxation. Help the Farmer.