“I DON’T THINK I EARN IT”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 11, 11 January 1913, Page 5

“I DON’T THINK I EARN IT”

It constantly occurs that English newspapers provide us with rare' news about happenings in our country. A correspondent of the “Ironmonger” provides the following:—

“I have never heard of an ironmonger’s assistant who considered himsel ftoo well paid for his services, and I am confident that I shall never meet with an employee who would refuse a rise when it was offered. Even Uriah Keep, with all his ’umbleness, was not averse to improving hie position. One has to go down under to find such a phenomenon as a man who objects to having his wages increased. Such an individual is said, nevertheless, to exist in Melbourne. He is a night watchman who is paid 45s a week. A little time ago the Factories Department notified him that as the result of an award made by the Wages Board he would in future be entitled to 47s instead of 455; weekly; but, to the surprise of everybody, the watchman replied that he was quite satisfied with 455, and that on principle he must decline the increase, as 1 don’t think I earn it, and if you insist on my accepting the extra 2s I shall throw up my job. According to the latest advices the post has not been vacated, but lest some of your subscribers should he tempted to rush off to Australia in search of work, it may he as well to say that not only are passages difficult to get just now, but that vacancies for assistants or night watchmen are scarce in the Commonwealth.”