Wages £2/5/- For A Man, A Horse And A Dray In “Good Old Days”
But Money Had Plenty Of Purchasing' Power
Back in 1915, “the boys” were overseas making- a world lit for heroes to live in. They did it again recently, and we all know wliat things were like here while they did it, but an old copy of the “Whakatane County -Press”, ancestor of the “Bea*con”, recently found by workmen shifting an old building, can refresh some memories on those earlier days.
Some ways it would seem that the world didn’t need to be made fit for heroes. to live in. It was like that, anyway. In April, 1915, the R.M. Coaching Company advertised a mail and passenger service that left Whakat.ane at 9.45 a.m. and got to Rotorua at 7 p.m. It took just on five hours to get to Opotiki. In the same issue of the paper the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Ltd. reported having received the following prices at the Westfield market: Prime oxen 435; others 38s to 40s; cows & heifers 30s to 37s 6d; best wethers 24s 6d to 29s 3d; others 19s 9d- to 23s 9d; lambs 15s to 24s 6d; ewes 20s 3d to 26s 6d.
A nice slice off the ox wouldn’t have cut such a swathe through a sheet of coupons those days—if they had any coupons. And weren’t the employers independent! A roadman wrote to the Town Board asking if they would give him constant employment. Instead of welcoming him with open arms, they thought it over a bit. The clerk said if the roadman had a horse and dray they could take him on full time. So the Board decided to offer him £2/5/- a week for himself, his horse and his dray, the job to include lamp lighting and all work required of him. Enough to give a modern union secretary apoplexy, isn’t it? Still, those days had their compensations. The roadman’s £2/5/was a “fair dinkum coupla quid an’ a dollar”. He could buy something with it. A furnishing house of that day offered three piece Chesterfield suites (top grade tapestry or moquette) at £l7/19/6 —less 5 per cent for cash! One could buy a fourteenday striking clock, in an oak case for 30/-, and a luxury job for 37/6. A first-class piano cost £47/10/-, a tailored suit £4. The roadman got £2/5/- a week. His suit of clothes (tailored) cost him less than a fortnight’s pay. No wonder they called them the “good old days.” Incidentally, in view of the recent local body elections, it might be of interest to mention that that Town Board meeting was attended by Messrs D. C. Martin (chairman), G. Brabant, T. W. James, M. J. Flood, T. Kirk, E. F. Levy and T. Francis.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19471125.2.25
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 1, 25 November 1947, Page 5
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466Wages £2/5/- For A Man, A Horse And A Dray In “Good Old Days” Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 1, 25 November 1947, Page 5
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