"TWOPENCE BACK."

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17281, 23 September 1916, Page 8

"TWOPENCE BACK."

THE RAILWAY WAR BONUS.

[From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, September 22. Railwaymen are not satisfied with the way in which their war bonus of a shilling; a day»to the: ■nonclerical division is being paid to tfWra. " The Railway Review" ,oalls attention to what it described j»;a .strange Departmental view of the bonus, instead of regarding, it as wages, the official view is that it is somethmg unearned—a gift-and thus liable receipt duty." It quotes the, report" of a Wanganui correspondent, who states that in accordance with Departmental instructions, the men will have to arm themselves on pay-day with » twopenny receipt stamp, but what happens to the man who is stampless on the day is at present veiled in mystery. Is the country so badly in need of money, asks its correspondent, that its administrators . have to ask men earning threo pounds a week or less to hand back some of their earnings. One way in which the railwayman is countering the increased cost of living is by combining to secure discounts from tradesmen in return for cash trading, and the concentration of retail custom. Th© Dunedin Railway Cash Purchase Association has jufit closed a successful year's operation, during which nearly £IOOO was returned through the association to the members, as discounts granted by retailers, this sum being in addition to discounts given over the counter „to> metabers'ijf tho association. ; -,'.. j