WAGES AND SALARIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7847, 8 July 1911, Page 4

WAGES AND SALARIES

Mr T. E. Taylor, M. 3?., in moving the other day a proposal to increase the wages of men employed by the Lyttelton Harbour Board receiving less than £175 a year, seems to have been rather unfortunate in adding that “ it seemed to be a very easy matter for salaried officers to obtain increases, but it was entirely different when they came to the daily wage man,” and that “ the conditions of labour fell very lightly on the salaried officer as compared with the wages man.” Mr Taylor is quite justified in espousing the cause of the daily wage man, but he errs deeply and gravely, we think, in belittling the services of educated and expert labour. Upon purely democratic grounds he is wrong. We are by no means wedded to the fetish-like worship of the highly paid expert. It is not necessary to travel far to find oases which justify this attitude. Wc will admit also that the members of the clerical and professional staffs of public bodies have more and better opportunities for bringing their claims for advanced emolument under the notice of their employers than have

the manual labourers. But these facts must not blind us to recognition of the importance of controlling and directing energies in any branch of the public service, whether conducted by tho State or a local body. Brains are just as much an honourable and as deservedly well ronumerated a qualification as muscle. It must be remembered that ill-directed manual labour, incompetently directed, may bo productive of serious waste. It is surely' false economy to treat parsimoniously the men who exercise control, who plan and direct, but who may not actually havo any physical share in the work to be done. Mr Taylor “as a good Democrat”—and wo cheerfully admit that his democratic sincerity is beyond question—should not forget that, owing to our national system of education, the clerical and expert positions in our public services are attainable, given industry and merit, to the sons of the poorest and humblest manual workers in tho land. In discounting the work of the higher officials bo is only providing yet another justification for what, unhappily, so often happens, namely, that young New Zealanders of education and ability often leave the Dominion for other countries where brains and educational equipment prove a passport to more generous recompense than can be obtained in their native land. Surely Mr Taylor does not approve of this.