WAGES AND COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 251, 17 July 1919, Page 6

WAGES AND COST OF LIVING

THE HOUSING PROBLEM FEELING OF WORKERS .\ DISCUSSION IN ARBITRATION COURT In the Arbitration Court yesterday, Mr. jr. J. Beardon, representing Hie Wellington tailors in an application for higher wages, directed some of his remarks to contradicting the impression (hat increased wages were the cause of the increased cost of living. He also commented upon the housing problem and the feeling of the workers in Nov? Zealand. Mr. Rcardnn said: "The public seem to think that the high cost of living is. duo largely to the increased wages that are being given by the Court. I have, endeavoured on innumerable occasions (o argue before the Court that the increases in wages are only a very small factor indeed. "While, of course, I am not able to state exactly whero the fault lies, I can only say . . . that in the caso before the Court now the one penny per • hour that was granted by the Court has had no material influence on prices." Mr. Scott (assessor for the employers! said that the trouble lay in the price of . tvend more than the cost of labour. Mr. Beardon: Well, I wish the public would understand that. They seem to think that the workers are responsible. ' The Court had definitely stated, Mr. Beardon proceeded, that it was prepared to do something to assist (he workers to cope with the increased cost of livinsr. The jvorkers, however, had the right to plead only the difference between the cost of living at the making of the last award and the cost of living now;. That iva.s unfair in so far as no one. surely, pretended that the last word in wages had been readied before the war broke out. "A Sort of Fatalism." Later on, Mr. Beardon said: "I hare never s?en exactly the same feeling among the working people of this country as I see at the present time. They have dropped into what I have endeavoured to describe as a sort of fatalism. They «eem to 'have abandoned hope of redress through the jjolitie.il machine; they seem to feel that the Arbitration. Courts while it is doing a little here and there, is not coping with the situation: and they persistentlv ask: 'What is eoing to happen next?' So far ns I can see. the answer they give themselves is 'Somethin? has got to hapnen that will shake (if I may be permitted to use the expre'siin) the indifference of tlinse in authoritr at the present time.' That is a remarkable feeling, but I feel that I amonlv stating the plain truth." Mr. ScoH: Would it be possible to appease them?" Mr. Beardon: Now, sir. in this city almost everv week applications are made to the. Magistrate's Conrt to evict from Ms 'home a man with his wife and children, not because ther are not good tenants or because they do not par the rents, but because somebodv has bought, the house over their heads. Mr. Scott: I was referring more to the matter of wages. Mr. Beardon: Wages are not everything. If a man comes along and buys the house over another man's head and applies to have the other man thrown out. all the latter can get is the sympathy of the Magistrate, but the Magistrate under the law must make the order. Mr. Justice Stringer (nresidiut of the. Cflurt): That no doubt, is due to the shortage of houses. People find they cannot rent houses, and therefore they have to buy them and get rid of the tenants. "Abnormal Times." Mr. Beardon: I have told those in authority that some of these days a man with a wife and children will refuse to no out. Thev will have to push 'him out, and when' they do half of the people in Wellington will gather round and s»e the performance-then something will Wpen. . . „ ~ Mr. Scott: It is the same mall the other centres iust now. We are living in> abnormal times. , Mr. Beardon: Is it going to remain so? Can' it remain so? Mr. Justice Stringer:. As you say, "ranting increased wages cannot remedy The Basic Wage. Mr. Beardon: The Arbitration Court ran onlv go part of the way. But I have endeavoured to show how the Court minimised its own power for good by i(k decision in this district on the last oc- ' casion. It must be clear now that ,the anticipation of the Court as to a fall m price o is lift goin'r to be realised for a very long time. It is admitted that the workers, in nine cises ont of ten, are very much worse off to-dav than in prewar davs. and the Court, by a recent derision, has laid down a rule that presents us from asking that the employees should be put on a pre-war footing, and in mv opinion that! is 1 wrong. Ur. Justice String: There is nothing to prevent a reconsideration of the basic *-B»e whe» ™ nlvn - r ' l runs mt ~ r , that we laid'down U only a working rule for the administration of the War Legislation (Amendment! Act. We have nlwavs said that it does not preclude the Court from reconsideration of the basic wage at any time when an award runs °Vr. Beardon: I see. WeM, of course, that is much more satisfactory.