PUTTING UP WAGES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16038, 31 January 1920, Page 9

PUTTING UP WAGES.

CUNNING RUSE. BOGUS ADVERTISEMENT. MONEY BY FALSE PRETENCES, A glaring case of obtaining money by false pretences, by means of a cunning ruse, has been brought to notice. It seems that a carpenter employed by a builder, on returning to Hamilton after a recent holiday, declared his intention of leaving his work, as he had been offered a better job in Auckland. He was then receiving 16s a day, and produced a copy of an Auckland daily, containing an advertisement offering 22s 6d per day for good carpenters. The employer, anxious to get the job in hand finished, decided to pay the man 22s 6d in order to keep him, but told him not to inform his confreres on the job of the increase. The other men, however, noticed the advertisement also, and demanded an advance under a threat of deserting the job, and the demand was conceded. The employer later decided to make enquiries as to the builder offering such high rates, and discovered that the advertisement was merely a bogus one inserted for the purpose of putting up rates, and he has good reason to believe that it was inspired by the man who first sought the increase*