ARBITRATION COURT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12570, 6 March 1919, Page 6

ARBITRATION COURT.

THE COST OF LIVING. INCREASES ALLOWED FOR. [Pxk Par.ss Association.] WELLINGTON. March 6. The Arbitration Court lias been recently considering the recent amended statute in connection with wages ami the cost of living. Now the Court has issued a statement on tho subject. The evidence of the Government Statistician, it says, showed that, notwithstanding the several increases granted by the Court during tho war to workers in different industries, they show a worse position financially than at the beginning of the war, .inasmuch as retail wages as apart from nominal wages have been reduced. The. Court, interprets the recent statute to moan that in the absence of any counter anil aiding consideration the wages of workers should for the future be increased in correspondence with the increase since the making of the several awards in the cost of living. In the cases under review—the furniture trade, plumbers, gasfitters • carpenters and joiners, coachworkors, iron and brass moulders and others—the Court therefore granted an increase of wages, making them approximately equal in purchasing power to existing wagew at the time when the latter were granted. The Court fixed the flat rate at Is 74d .por hour to those skilled workers, and granted in addition a bonus of 21 d per hour, which may ho varied according to circumstances from time to time.