COST OF THE STRIKE IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 137, 27 February 1918, Page 8

COST OF THE STRIKE IN NEW SOUTH WALES

GOVERNMENT'S :BILL, £93,000.

According to a report by Mr. Holme, Under-Secretary for Labour and Industry, laid upon the table of the Legislative Assembly last week, the total loss to the New South Wales' community as a result of. the recent strike was between £3,400,000 and £9,000,000. It was estimated that some 73,500 employees were directly involved in tho active participation in the strike, and that the wages forfeited amounted to not less than £1,700,000. A great number of employees were indirectly affected, but it was not considered that any useful estimate could be raado in this connection. The work which was done by emergency labour had to be taken into cqnsidera- . tion in any computation of genoral loss, but the emergency labour forces reached a maximum of only 7400 persons, as against a maximum of 08,000 strikers, and the effect of this work was regarded as at least neutralised by the loss to those persons who .were involved in involuntary unemployment as one of the indirect results of tho strike.

The direct cost to the Government as a result of the expedients which it adopted as a means of counteracting the effects of the strike was approximately £'98,000, but tho figures could not be given definitely because certain accounts remained unclosed and could only bo estimated. The cost of recruiting national 'workers in country centres, travelling tq tho concentration camps, and returning then eventually to thoir homes, was £2-1,4.8-i, <.v £3 os." 10d. per head. The cost fa respect of administration, medical services, commissariat, sanitation, and transport of the three Government camps was .6-11,908, tho cost per man per week being:—Cricket Ground Camp, £1 15s. 9d.; Taronga Park Camp-. ■£] 10s. Id.: and the Sailors' Home, Newcastle, £1 12s. !)d. The average cost of the three camps under these heads was £1 ]3s. lOd. per man per. week. The cost ■of equipment of camps wa5.£5243.

The amount of premiums paid for workmen's compensation insurance was £433 6s. Od. and certain ex gratia payments in the way of compensation amounted to £30 13s. 7d.

The Government had provided £20,000 for the relief of strike distress, a fund established and administered by the combined unions amounted to over £23,000, and the Lord Mavor's fund provided £'1931.