CHEAP LABOUR.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 17, 4 March 1913, Page 2

CHEAP LABOUR.

We never hear of a strike happening in India, and yet in that country the wages of the labouring classes average something like three-half-pence a day. While a fairly skilled journeyman can earn about twelve shillings a month, and a good mechanic about sixteen, or twice the pay of a native soldier. Domestic servants may be had so' cheaply, both as regards food and wages, that a family who in England could only keep one or two servants could in India keep a whole retinue. In many parts of South America Indian labour is to be had for about twopence a day; but, after all, the lowest level would appear to be reached in China. There are large districts in China where labour is so cheap that it can hardly he reckoned on a money standard. Thousands of Chinese labourers live on a little more than a handful of rice or so a day, and yet even then there are thousands of unemployed practically starving. Hence the wage value of the labourer, who just manages to lave, is practically inflnitesmal. Of labour that may be fairly called skilled the Japanese is probably the cheapest, for a worker in lacquer or inlaying and mosaic work will employ skill and knowledge which have been inherited and handed down for generations in return for a wage that a n English labourer would refuse with, contemptuous disgust.— “ Weekly Leader.’’