PRICE OF HAIRCUTTING.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15183, 8 March 1923, Page 7

PRICE OF HAIRCUTTING.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Will you allow me a small space’ in your paper in reply to Mr Arthur J. Tomlinson re the price of hairdressing in Hamilton. It seems to me, sir, that Mr Tomlinson does not know what he is talking about; also, it seems to me that he is a little of the dog-in-the-manger sort. It is all very well for Mr Tomlinson to complain ove,r paving Is 6d for a haircut; if the hairdressers of Hamilton did not charge a fair thing to make ends meet they would soon go south a s most other businesses do when/they start the cut-throat syle. Perhaps Mr Tomlinson is working in a class or business that the Government prevents other people from starting, such as banking, where he is sure of his wages every week, and then doep not care .whether his brother citizen starves. The right course for Mr Tomlinson would be to attack, first, the landlords who charge such high rents for their shops. The rents in this town are much; higher for the size of the town than in Auckland. Also, I would like to state that the class of work the people of Hamilton receive from the hairdressers here is quite up -to the standard of any other city in New Zealand. I would like to draw Mr Tomlinson’s attention to the fact that hair-dressing is absolutely one of the most unhealthy trades known, and If a hairdresser does not get a fair wage to compensate him'for the risk he takes, well then the trade is not worth learning, and the sooher he turns the trade up the better, Mr Tomlinson also states that ho is not a mean man, and if he has a haircut only once a month and complains over the extra sixpence I say he is. I take it from the way he talks 'it is the last haircut he is going to have in a barber’s shop, and that now he intends joining the Rua tribe to save getting his haircut. —I am, etc., ONE OF THE TRADE.