FREETRADE AND WAGES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1813, 12 April 1888, Page 3

FREETRADE AND WAGES.

TO THB EDITOB. glß,— l heartily endorse Freetrader Ho. 2'a letter m Tuesday night's Issue, with the exception of the closing para. graph. I cannot see why it is a neoeesary consequence that to compete here with the Home manufacturers we mast pay a lower rate of wages then they do, and if space permitted I shonld Bhow a great many reasons to the contrary. Bat I will jast lake up again the woollen manufacture here as it can at least sbo<v one of the reasons why we are able to pay a higher rate of wages then they can do at Home and jet be able to compete succesnfully with all ontstde competitlou. We aend from here the wool to the English market, and besides the cost of freight, port dues, etc., I do not exaggerate when I say it passes through at least blx or eight middlemen's hands, and all receiving a good profit out of it. After beiDg made Into cloth It has yet to go through tho Bame process m coming back to ns. Now, as all or nearly all, these middlemen are done away with m looal manuf<:o v ure. I think we can afford to pay a much higher rate of wages then they can pay at Home, that Is provided we take care always to have as good management and machinery as those with whom we have to compete, and yet be able to sell much cheaper than the Home manufacturer can do m this market. Dow X will just state a fact that came under say own notice some time •go, showing what it means to the purchaser when goods have to go through a lot of handß. A small article not {>rocnrable m the district, being wanted t came through five or sis handß, the price to the purohaser being 17s 6d, the manufacturer's price being 33 6 1. I don't suppose""" any of them eherged over the usual profit m the transaction, but this will show purchasers that it is the most profitable to deal direct with the manufacturer, or as near that as possible. Bat I must repeat that the buccbbs of oar local manufactures depends more on skilful and expert management to make it pay than on the rate of wages paid' to workmen. Just take, as a sample of bad management, the first attempt to start the Woollen Factory m Aahborton. A company was formed, without, 1 suppose, • single expert amongst them. They purchased (as they thought) a lot of machinery cheap, but, as It turned out to be both worn out In detail and obsolete In principle surely the most rabid Protectionist would scarcely ask us to Ux ourselves to support such a piece of folly. Why, a hundred per cent import duty would not have helped them to pay either wages or a dividend. I will now state jost one fact to show what a high rate of wages can do m a dose competition. The Faitfiold Ship building and Marine Engineering Company, of Glasgow, made it one of their principal rules to pay something over the average rate of the town, and the conao quenoe was they could always command the best tradesmen m every department, and the unpeecedented success of that firm and the class of work pot into theit hands for execution show what can be done with close competition by paying good wages to their workmen, and I am bonvicoed from a large observation oi various facts connected with the wagee question that It is the low rate of wagef paid that is bringing England down from her preeminence among the manufacturing nation* of the world and not the high rate, as many 'of her employers would have vi believe, JJafc as that subject would bt too long to enter upon here and thli letter Hr, I fear, too loag already, I ma ' wlth'your kind permission return t$ it a jinotber'tlrae, g< I tun, etc. *_ . ~ ' |tal8A»B»