SOME LARGE EARNINGS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17572, 16 May 1919, Page 4

SOME LARGE EARNINGS.

FIGURES FROM AUSTRALIA,

The cost of living may be distressingly high in Australia, but, judging from official information from various sources this week, at least some sections of the workingmen of the country have no reason to- complain. It may be remembered that, some three months ago, a number of boilermakers and others at the Cockatoo Island Naval Dockyards were dismissed owing to their "go slow" tactics. It was proved that they were not doing one-tenth of the work that might have been expected of them. They were so obviously in the wrong that even the union turned against them, and they capitulated, and humbly sought re-employment. They were taken on again on a piecework 'basis. It is now announced that these men have dropped "go slow," and that their average during a recent period is as follows. —Platers, £1 15s 9d per day; hand riveters, £1 9s Id per day; machine riveters, £1 2s 7d per day; platers' helpers, £1 7s 3d per day; pneumatic drillers, 19s 6d, and caulkers, 16s sd.

Evidence about the earnings of the coalminer3 is now being placed before the commission which is inquiring into the coalmining industry with a view to making a recommendation about the claims of the miners for increased wages. The evidence shows that at one mine, held *o be typical of many, the earnings of men—taking the average period of the year—are as follows: —22 miners, average of £16 5s per man per fortnight; 38 wheelers, average of £9 per man per fortnight. At another mine—a fairly large one on the Newcastle field—the average net earnings per pair of miners per fortnight has been £17 Bs, with not a great deal of broken time. These rates rule in this country among almost all large bodies of half-skilled workers — slaughtermen, miners, wharf labourers, and so forth—who cleave closely to unionism.