HOSPITAL WAGES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20312, 23 May 1934, Page 10

HOSPITAL WAGES.

Question of Restoring the Cut. A MOTION NEGATIVED. By a narrow majority of one vote, the North Canterbury Hospital Board this morning refused to reconsider the decision. come to at the last meeting not to increase wages. Foliowing on the board’s recent refusal to grant a restoration of the wages “ cut ” to tfie extent of 5 per cent, Mr W. P. Spencer moved:—“That, the decision of the board, carried at last meeting, not to increase the salaries and wages of those earning £2OO per annum or under by 5 per cent, be rescinded.’’ Members of the board, he said, had not given the matter sufficient consideration at the last meeting. They had, he thought, got the depression too much on their minds and had gone too far in the matter of wage reductions. The effect of raising wages would be good. Mrs M’Combs seconded the motion. If the board raised wages, she said, it would be acting in accord with the trend throughout the Dominion. “ I was genuinely surprised to find after the last meeting that the board had declined to increase wages,” said the Rev J. K. Archer in supporting the motion. So far as the nurses were concerned, there were hospital boards in the country that had not made wage cuts at all. Christchurch City paid about one-third of the levy towards the hospital and would have to pay onethird of the. increase. “ I can say this, as chairman of the Finance. Committee of the City Council,” he said, “ that we would be willing to pay it, even if the other bodies did not.” In the case of the country districts, he said, there were some places where the levy was very small and where the sum represented by the increase was paltry. He could not understand their attitude. He thought it was morally wrong. In some cases the increase would not mean the addition of a “ tenner ” in the levy. “ Give It a Go.” “ I have been approached by scores of people in my district and told to support this to the last ditch,” said Mr A. T. Smith. He added that his district was largely a farming district. Public bodies all over the country were increasing wages. “ Give it a go,” he said. “ The country can stand it. Show that we are here to support the staff.” Mrs Bean objected to the principle of passing motions at one meeting and rescinding them at the next. Mr J. S. Barnett supported the motion. All over New Zealand, he said, public bodies were recognising that the time had arrived to restore the cut. The actual “ cut ” in the wages of the nurses had been not 10 per cent but 40 per cent. In view of that fact it was time that some restoration of the cut was made to the nurses. “ I am quite certain that we have turned the worst corner in the depression,” said Mr Spencer, in closing the discussion. “It is the worst thing in the world to cut wages too much. The wage-earners are the best spenders.” He was surprised to find so much opposition to the motion. The motion was lost by nine votes to ten, the voting being: For the motion (9)—The Rev J. K. Archer, Messrs J. S. Barnett, H. A. Bennett, W. T- Foster. A. T. Smith, W. P. Spencer, W. J. Walter, Mrs T. Green and Mrs J. M’Combs, M.P. Against (10)—Sir Hugh Acland, Dr P. S. Foster, Mrs J. A. Bean, Messrs T. Boyd, H. R. Davison, L. B. Evans. H. H. Holland, H. J. Otley. F. Rowell and T. Thompson.