THE WAGES “CUT”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 7

THE WAGES “CUT”

ro THE EDITOR Sir,— With regard to the proposed wages “ cut,” two facts come to my mind. One is that the salary of the general manager of railways is £3500 with attached emoluments. The other is the debarring of an unemployed man, with a family of six, from getting four days’ work per week because he milks six cows. Really, the comparison would be laughable if it -were not so fraught with distress for the unemployed man. How much statesmanship is there in a general cut of 10 per cent.? A man getting £IOOO per annum still has a salary of £9OO. A 100 per cent, cut down to £6OO or £7OO would result in the money being more evenly distributed, and subsequently spent. The Prime Minister says that single men can live on less than £250 per annum. How are these young men to marry if they do not get a wage high enough to make a home, and surely we do not warn; State baby farms as in Russia. The Reform Party’s attitude to wages is delightfully interesting. In its dying official hours, and with a working majority that enabled it to do as it liked, the Reform Government appointed a general manager of railways at £3500 per annum, and reduced the labourer’s wage to 12s and 9s per day for married and single men respectively. Does any sane man expect to get results from putting a 9s per day man alongside a 12s per day man? The Unemployment Board does better than that by rationing work. May I ask, what is Parliament doing for our farmers? Cutting down the spending power of the class that Tsill buy the products of the farm, and keeping high the spending power of the class that will buy the fancy goods and stuffs manufactured in other countries. The unemployed are being put on to work that would not otherwise be done, instead of on to necessary work that would to a certain extent relieve the farmer of hie rates. There is no need so great as that of the farmer and general labourer, yet Parliament has wasted days over a “cut” in the wages of civil servants. Labour certainly belabours itself, and the Labour Party has got so busy chasing the mosquito that it is forgetting the flea. There has been little political vision in the past, and there seems to be less for the future Anyway, must the Budget be balanced? Is 'it absolutely necessary?—l am, etc., James Wood. Barnceo Flat, Balclutha, March 28.