The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1883. DAIRY FACTORIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1096, 24 April 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1883. DAIRY FACTORIES.

Wb suggested some time ago to the farmers on the Geraldine Fla*, and also on the Waitohi Flat the advisability of establishing branches of the Butter and Cheese Factory in their respective districts. So far as we can ascertain no action has yet been taken hi the matter in either district. We are rather surprised at this, asiit is now a wel| established fact that such institutions yield immense profits tofarmeis amongst whom they are established. It is well known that in no other way can farmers make so much out of their land as by keeping cows on it and selling their milk to the dairy factory. Why therefore farmers should hesi'ate to invest in such institutions is difficult to under stand. The experience of the past assures them that not alone is the investment saf», but that the establishment of a factory in their midst adds to the value of their property, and increases their revenue if they avail themselves of it. It would be well that farmers would reflect upon this, and set to work r.l once. If any movement is to be made at all it should be made at oner, so as to be ready for next season, which commences in the beginning of September. We have no doubt but that we need only remind the Geraldine fanners of this, and that they will soon set to work to secure a factory for themselves.

THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND. Tub report of the Bank ot New Zealand is a highly satisfactory one. A dividend of 10 per cent and a bonus of 5s per share is a to be paid to the shareholders ; that is a dividend of 15 per cent for the year, and about 5 per cent more carried forward. That is about 20 per cent profit for the year, and Mr Williamson said it would have been more only for having to pay 6 per cent on deposits. If this is not coining money it is not far from it, and yet this institution is most niggardly with its employees. The Rev Shirley Barker suggested that a bonus of 10 per cent should be given to the staff, but Mr Murdoch, the General Manager, questioned whether the present time was opportune to indulge in such liberality. We have no doubt hut that the staff will offer up prayers for Mr Murdoch. The Bank has made 20 per cent for the year and yet the line is not opportune to give the staff something like decent wages. In a recent trial in Nelson in which a bank clerk was charged with the larceny of about *SOO some startling facts came out as to the salaries bank clerks receive. We have not the paper containing the report >t hand just now, hut so far as we can recollect the leading facts were that the clerk had been about five years in the employment of the bank, had risen to the position of teller, and received the magnificent salary of £BO a year. Out of this sum he had to pay £8 to a Fidelity Fund, leaving him £72 a year to feed and clothe him. The Bank, of course, required that he should be respectably dressed, and keep up a decent appearance in society, and all it gave him to do so was £72 a year. Now it is scarcely possible for a bank clerk to find such lodgings as would be suitable to his position for less than 25s per week at the least, or £65, and that leaves him £7 a year to kept himself decently clothed. How, in the name of common sense, the Banks can have the heart to keep their staff at such miserable salaries as that while they are amassing wealth in a most extraordinary manner, is a mystery to us. The only way we can account for it is that there is in man such an insatiable greed for wealth that in order to acquire it he would make absolute slaves of his employees if the laws of the country would allow him. Banks expect their employees to be honest, to be respectably dressed, to keep good company, and to do many ether things to uphold the

dignity of these institutions, and yet

they will not pay them near so well as the butcher’s or baker’s boys are paid. They are placed in positions of temptation, thousands of pounds of money pass through theii hands daily, and if they lose one penny of it they must make it good. That such a state of things should ?xist is a disgrace to our civilization. From a moral point it strikes us that these institutions are guilty of fraud, and that the money which they ought to, but do not pay, their employees is ill-gotten. But it is no use to preach morality to banking institutions, and we know but one way in which the state of things can be im proved. This is it : Young men should take to some other occupation—ploughing for instance—and bring these institutions to realise the fact that without labor capital can do very little. In this wc do not advocate a strike of clerks, but we advise the rising generation to look for some trade or calling besides that of a clerk. Education is becom’ng very general, and in a short time there will be nobody in this colony hut educated men looking for billets as clerk. It behoves lathers of families' to keep this in mind, and put their sons to some occupation by which they can not fail to make a livelihood. They cannot very well do this as clerks 2u years hence in New Zealand unless people look at it at once, for clerks will he as thick as leaves all over the colony. In the meantime, however, we think the

Bank of New Zealand might very well give its employees the bonus suggested by the Rev Mr Barker. We think that if the Board of Directors contented itself with a dividened of 15 per cent, and gave the 5s per share to the employees they would have acted more in consonance with justice and fairly. II 15 per cent for the year is not enough for the shareholders it ought to be, and to give more appears to .border .m ii.-,ary.