HIGH COST OF LABOUR

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1930, Page 7

HIGH COST OF LABOUR

PROBLEMS BEFORE COURT. DISPUTE AT ARBITRATION. “No doubt, the depression will have some good results in the shape of better methods . and reduction in prices, 5 said Mr. Justice Frazer in the Arbitration Court at Dun Odin on Tuesday during the hearing of the builders and contractors’ labourers’ dispute, in which the representative of the workers claimed that wages were a small factor in the cost of production. His Honour replied that if the building of a house were taken as an example wages might amount to 40. per cent, of the cost, but a large proportion of tiny remaining 60 per cent, of the cost was also accounted for./by labour. For instance, there were the cutting and the transport of the timber which was used. He was quite sure that if it were possible every member of the Court would do his best to obtain higher wages and a higher standard of living for all trades. These economic questions,, however, His Honour said, were not always easy to understand or. to. express’ Ten yOars ago there might have been' 50 builders in Dunedin employing 5000. men and doing £5,000,000 worth of work in a year, but in a period such as the present the amount might be reduced to £1,000,000. With the builders cutting prices down to the bare level to obtain work, His Honour, asked, how could the Court produce au equal amount of work or an equal or greater amount of wages? This would give an idea of the difficult questions which the Court was asked to solve. He frankly admitted he could not find a solution.