The Poverty Bay Herald East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 837, 17 July 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1879.

A correspondent signing himself" A Working Man," writes that he " hears with disgust " it is the intention of the Master Builders and Contractors of Gisborne to lower the price of wages. This, he says, men would not submit to, as they cannot support themselves and their families upon a lower rate of pay with the present high cost of living. The loaf of bread is higher m the Bay than m any other part of the colony ; butter sells for 2s. 4d. the pound, whilst the humblest cottage m which a man can find shelter, lets from 12s. to 15s. per week. Other absolute necessaries of life are proportionally high, and until the cost of living is greatly reduced it is nonsense to talk about reducing the price of men's wages. The only one thing that is reasonable m price, says " the Working Man," is meat ; but then men want other things to support life with comfort than what comes from the butcher's shop. All this we admit is quite true, and if wages, owing to .he pressure of the times, and the very few new buildings m course of erection, have to be reduced, there certainly must be a corresponding reduction m the cost of subsistence. As a rule, wages and the means of living assimilate after a very short time. If a mechanic m New Zealand, as m the Australian colonies, cannot live where he is located, he looks out for some more remunerative field for the employment of his skill and labor. It is not well that a man should have to j shift from one place to another so that he is not able to tell where his permanent home may be at last. But it is so m all newiy settled countries, and we suppose it always will be. If the laboi* market m Gisborne is overstocked, then wages must fall, just as they would rise if it were understocked. Every man will sell his skill to the highest bidder, and every employer will buy his labor where he can get it the cheapest. . No legislation will ever be able to alter the inevitable law which relates to supply and demand. One who represents himself to be a laborer writes to a Wellington contemporary as follows : — " In your leader of the 6th instant you say : " At the time like the present it is very desirable that intelligent mechanics and laborers should express their views publicly on the labor question." I take advantage of your advice, and publicly inquire what good would the public expression of such views do 1 Were it logically shown by ' bhem that a high rate of wages wns more conducive to the prosperity of the Colony than a low rate, would it stop the lower rate that is now obtaining ? I can't see it. Again, supposing that the employer and employee were to accept your generous proposal and do battle m the columns of a newspaper, what chance would the employee have against his more intelligent employer . Even were the employee his employer's equal, compare their surroundings, &c. The employee is a station hand, for istance, subsisting upon bread, mutton, and tea continuously, sleeping m blankets that have been exposed to the variable weather of the various stations, and the no less variable men's huts, alike biit m one feature— - viz., dirt. He has been work all day, and he sits down at night on his veteran blankets, and by the light of a slush lamp — writes using his knee for a desk — an article m opposition to his employer's article. How long will a man retain (I was going to say his soul) his intelligence so circumstanced 1 At best the machinery of life goes dull and slow for us laborers, and yet you desire to withdraw some of the little oil . we get to run the affair. One man told me that he would have to dispense with taking your paper. He said " this man seems to think that the wages are not getting low fast enough. I wonder how much per 1000 he pays his printers, and if he 'gives the devilhis due*'" To this theEditor make rejoinder, and says our correspondent is quite right m assuming that a discussion on the comparative advantages of high and low wages would not effect the rate actually paid. All that we asserted was that interchange of views would tend to promote a good understanding between

employers and employees, the interests of both being identical. The picture our correspondent draws of a station hand is great nonsense. It is well known that few hands on stations earn less than a pound a week besides board and lodging. If a man cannot provide himself with clean bed and bedding and a table to write on out of a pound per week, it is entirely his own fault. A station hand m New Zealand has absolutely more pocketmoney than the average English curate who has to keep up the appearance of a gentleman. As yet no laborer has been called upon to give up anything necessary for his moral and physical well-being, and the man who does not waste his means on intemperate indulgence is as well off and as independent as any working' man m any part of the civilised* world. Hard work, bread, mutton, and tea, are all m their way " good things." Nor is a working man's intelligence at all likely to be impaired by a oourse of them. If his intelligence suffers at all it is from adding to the list exciting stimulants which empty his purse and destroy both his mental and physical powers.