WAGES REDUCTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19438, 26 October 1925, Page 7

WAGES REDUCTION

A LABOUR CANARD. MINISTER'S STATEMENT. [Per Press Association.] GORE, Oct. 24. The Hon. G. J. Anderson, Minister of Labour, who has just returned to Gore after a country visit, replied to a statement made by Air Holland, the Labour leader, in Wellington, that the Labour Minister had carefully consid- j cred a reduction in wages of 7s 6d per week owing to that proposition appearing in the annual report of the Department. What Mr Holland conveniently ignored, says the Minister, was the fact that the report, although presented to Parliament in pursuance of law, was written by the head of the Department, not by the Minister. Apparently Mr Holland holds the opinion that the Minister of Labour should dictate to the secretary what the latter should publish in his annual report. This Mr Anderson had never done and. as far as ho know, it had not been the practice of any previous Minister of Labour. Previous Secretaries of Labour had incorporated in reports views Iwhfch no Minister of the Crown could I hope to give effect to, but which, at the same time, were of universal interest. As far as the reduction of 7s 6d from the wages of workers was concerned, to be placed in a central fund and paid out to those with large families, Mr Anderson said ho was totally opposed to such a scheme, and had never stated or implied that it should be enforced, or that it was desirable to attempt to < enforce it. He had not placed such a suggestion before the Government, and the Government had never considered ■the matter. The opinion on “ family I allowances’’ in the report was merely |an academic expression on Labour niatItors by the Secretary for Labour him|self. If Mr Holland believed that it was a Minister’s place to interfere with the personal opinion of his officers, or automatically to adopt it as a matter of Government policy, and would carry that priniciplo into practice it he ever had the opportunity, he would quickly find that a free people such as New Zealanders are would immediately repudiate him and his views.