EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24910, 8 May 1942, Page 6

EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE

Sir, —I am in agreement with the constructive criticism of “ Truth ’’ and “Plucked,” whose letters conform to the platform which the Labour Party was, to my mind, elected to uphold. Mr Finch’s letters, on the other hand, attack the general labourers and tradesmen engaged by the hour on intermittent work, and by repeatedly and erroneously assuming they lose no time, he contrasts their wages with those of the soldier. As a volunteer of the last war, when wages for soldiers were 5s per day without allowances for wives and families, I found after the war, when it was agreed to make retrospective to the first division the family allowances paid to' the second division, that my wife received a lump sum of £212 12s 6d. Yet, in calculating soldiers’ wages, Mr Finch ignores these now-increased substantial Government allowances. He says nothing of the cost to the Government of housing, bedding, clothing, and feeding the soldier. He is silent about the fact that the soldier is exempt from the wages tax, Customs tax on tobacco, etc. He apparently pretends not to know that general labourers on defence work must be men with large families or else they would have been called up. Mr Finch ignores the fact that general labourers and artisans are only paid for the time actually worked, though on defence work they are guaranteed a weekly wage provided they work to make up lost time on Saturday or on Sunday, when their critics are resting.—l am, etc.,

J. E. MacManus. 15 Gilmour street, Kaikorai.