The Globe. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1876.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 787, 29 December 1876, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1876.

Some little time back a petition to the master builders of Christchurch, asking for certain alterations in the payment of wages, was circulated in the city. It was, we believe, largely signed, but up to the present we are not aware that any further steps have been taken regarding it. The request contained in the petition was to the effect that all wages should be paid weekly, either on Friday night or noon on Saturday, and that cheques for the payment of wages should be abolished. We hope that the promoters of so good a movement will not relax their efforts to get it carried practically into effect; and not only so as regards the building trades but all others. The two cardinal points, we take it, in the matter, are the*payment weekly and the abolition of cheques. The question of time of payment is a matter of detail. First then as to weekly payments. It is the practice in Christchurch, in some establishments, to pay fortnightly, i.e., the workman has to leave one week’s wages in his employer’s hands. Now, apart from other considerations to which we will refer presently, this is manifestly unfair. The man has no right to be kept out of one week’s wages; nor is it just that the master should be able to use that money —which will amount to a pretty large sum where many men are employed—really the property of his employes. Another, and the most important point, as affecting the welfare of the artisan and his family, is that such an arrangement tends to encourage habits of improvidence. It leads to running accounts for goods, and perhaps going far in excess of what is warranted by the means at the disposal of the family ; because, when credit is obtained, there is no prudential check. The mechanic is never on even terms with the world, and the general truth of Mr. Micawber’s estimate of happiness and misery, as balanced by over or under expenditure becomes apparent. It will therefore be seen that, as inculcating habits of thrift, the payment of wages weekly is a good thing. Now we come to the question of payment by cheques, and here the evil results are more apparent and pernicious in their effects. The public-house is, in nine cases out of ten, the bank where the cheque is changed, and, as a matter of course, heavy toll has to be paid. A habit of stopping about public houses on Saturday afternoons, dissipating the hard earnings which are wanted so badly at home, is the melancholy effect of change being given by the publican for cheques. A temptation is thrown in a man’s way which it is hard to resist, and the best inclined become in time habitual visitors to the public house on Saturdays. There is no possible reason why the wages should not be paid in cash, and, at any rate, this temptation put away. The wages list is made out, and it is as easy, or more so, to have a large cheque drawn out for the whole amount and pay in cash, as to make out a number of individual cheques. There are many other arguments in favor of the step proposed by the workmen, and we hope to see the movement carried out, not alone in this, but in every trade where the practices we have referred to, exist.