WAGES IN THE COLONY.

Evening Star, Issue 3798, 27 April 1875, Page 2

WAGES IN THE COLONY.

To the Editor. ' Sir,— Tn reading the Hon. Major Atkinson’s inspection of local industiies, I notice that ‘Guardian’ makes a boast that one of the blacksmiths in the employment of a firm in town can earn L2 a day, and asks when will our blacksmiths at Home make that ? or rather, in his own words, “ Wh t would Home blacksmiths say to that?” Well, what they would say is, iu my opinion, this : the 4 Guardian ’ cites the case of only one man; his neighbor perhaps, only makes 10s a day. There is in Dunedin at present, to my certain knowledge, a blacksmith who, at Home, has earned L 5 a week, and only worked a day of nine hours. I know blacksmiths at Home at present who earned 36s in the day of nine hours. I know other tradesmen who have earned L 3 a week, and are now in Dunedin not earning more than T/2 10s, so that we see, if the ‘Guardian’ is holding up one man who earns L2 a day as an inducement for blacksmiths to come to the Colony, we are surely justified in showing a case where a man has been earning more at Home than he can do here.—l am, Ac., D.P.K, Dunedin, April 27.