POSTAL OFFICERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10562, 13 April 1920, Page 5

POSTAL OFFICERS

£1 PER DAY DEMANDED COST OF LIVING AND PRESENT-DAY-SALARIES. Some stirring speeches were made at the annual meeting of the AVellington section of tho Post and Telegraph Officers' Association last night, with reference to tho following remit mowed by Mr Cummins and seconded by air 'l'. X. Johnson: "That this branch desires to impress conference with the present unsatisfactory salaries which officers are now receiving, and maintains that no officer should be in receipt of less than £1 per day." Mr Cummins said that meant £313 a year; but it wan not worth that across tho counter. .Its purchasing-power was only £225 as compared with the position before the war. It had been stated that tho position was better hero than at Home. But those who made such statements quoted food prices only. They did not quote house rent, clothes, and such like; and for a verj good reason. A slop 6uit that woulo cost £7 or more here could bo bought for £5 10s at Home, arid a good suit for £9. Again, we paid i)d and lOd for a reel of cotton just as they did at Home. In fact, when tied in .a knot before a committee of inquiry at Home, Messrs Coats and Co., the great cotton people, who had been making such huge profits, had made the excuse that they made them, not at Home, but on their overseas sales. In England, tho postal servants were putting £1 a week each into a strike fund, and had warned the department that if they did not get what they wanted they would go on strike as soon as they had sufficiently built up the fund. (Laughter and applause,) Voices: We should do the same. (Applause.) Mr Johnson said that he had just spent three years at Homo. He had kept careful accounts there and hero, and he found that his expenses hero were rather more than at Homo. The remit, which was strongly supported by Mr Burns and other speakers, was adopted unanimously. It was resolved unanimously: "That this annua! meeting of the Wellington branch of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association calls on the executive committee to ronveJjo conference as early as possible, so that conference can "bring, before the department the urgent and pressing needs of officers in respect of their salaries.'' NELSON BRANCH. | PIB PRESS ASSOCIATION. I NELSON, April 12. At- tho largest meeting yet held of the Nelson branch of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association, a reso. mtion was passed demanding the immediate readjustment and increase of salaries by at least 30 per cent, to meet the daily increasing cost of existing, not to mention to living. The resolution also demanded that the war bonus bo | paid forthwith, and concluded by say- | ing it was felt that the time had now come when the loyalty of members of the department must no lohgor* ba j penalised to the detriment of their just, reasonable, and legitimate claims.