Privileged Classes.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 849, 24 August 1933, Page 8

Privileged Classes.

Dear Sir, —Some time ago I noticed in your paper where Mr Acland at the meeting of the Christchurch Citizens' Association accused the Mayor and Labour councillors of creating a privileged class of workers by not reducing the council employees' wages by the 10 per cent cut like all other award workers. I would like to draw the attention of Mr Acland and his followers to the more glaring instance of the privileged classes instituted by the Christchurch Tramway Board, controlled by the C.C.A. They have exempted all the Tramway Board’s staff from the 10 per cent cut up to £3OO (does any council worker get as much as that?). It seems strange to me that a body of business men like the C.C.A. should grant privileges, and at the same time telling the public that the striking of a tramway rate is inevitable. The incoming board after the election in November next will have a legacy of debts left to them by the past and present boards. Most of these debts were incurred by the purchase of Brill cars with all their unnecessary coupling equipment; new workshops and machinery that was never used; and new’ offices when the offices they had would have carried another storey. Then came the costly experiment of the buses, and now the dismantling of the overhead equipment on the North Beach to Brighton. Could not the overhead wiring be left (like the balance of the one-man cars) till after the election?—l am, etc.. BE CONSISTENT.