MILITARY CAMP

Southland Times, Issue 20771, 11 May 1929, Page 17

MILITARY CAMP

APPRENTICES’ WAGES. "UNJUST CLASS TAXATION.” A MANAGER’S COMPLAINT. (Pfcr United Press Association.) Christchurch, May 9. That the payment of wages to youths attending military camps was the most unjust class taxation to which employers, willing to train apprentices, were subject, was the contention of Mr G. M. Hall, general manager of Booth, Macdonald and Co., in the Magistrate’s Court, this morning, when the Labour Department claimed £lO from Booth, Macdonald as a penalty for a breach of the award in not paying wages to apprentices while they were attending camp. Mr. Hall argued that while civil servants were not paid while in camp, the Government compelled employers to pay their apprentices. He. said that military training was a matter for the State and the cost of it should be borne by the whole community. This principle was not applied in New Zealand. An employer of apprentices and juniors had to put up with the disorganization of business and the inconvenience of having them taken away from work for certain periods every year and had also to pay full wages. Actually the employer of the apprentices was asked to pay three times in taxation, in loss and inconvenience and in actual wages. He urged that the State should provide relief for private employers in the same way as they treated their own departments, the whole community to pay an equal share towards the cost of military training. The Magistrate said the question seemed to be a political one and he would make no comment. Mr R 1 T. Bailey, for the Labour Department, said that the Arbitration Court in 1915 had pointed a way out of his difficulty. Of this Mr Hall said he was unaware. Judgment was for plaintiff for £2 with costs.