REPLY TO “LUX.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 9 February 1909, Page 3

REPLY TO “LUX.”

[to the editor.J

Sir, —Lucus a non lucendo not “ Lux .” 1 must tender my apologies to your correspondent “ Lux,” for my seeming tardiness in dealing with hi? letter of the 2nd inst. An unexpected visit to Wellington was the cause of my apparent neglect, which I now hasten to repair. lam entirely at one with “Lux ” when he defines the millers’ position as. unfortunate, but I must take emphatic exception to his statement that I ever tried to prove that the Arbitration Court’s Award was the means of keeping the mills running. If “ Lux ” will cast an eye over what I have written he will see that my argument was that the Award was not the menus of c/osj)i (r the mills down, which is a very different thing from the ab surdity he attributes to me. The correctness of my contention is shown by the figures quoted by Lux himself, as the per centage of mills shutdown in the Wellington province is the lowest of any of the districts named. It would be interesting to know from what source your correspondent drew his figures. He gives 35 as the present total of mills running in the Wellington province ! We have 36 running in the Mauawatu district alone, without counting Hawke’s Bay and the Rangitikei. Can “ Lux ” account for this discrepancy ? Here is the position from our point of view: The average increase of wages throughout the Dominion through the operation of the Arbitration Court, has been 23 per cent., while the cost of the bare necessaries of life has risen 22 per cent. Now, our particular industry has, by coming under award, increased the cost of production by £1 3s per ton (Mr Greig’s figures), which, taking into consideration the eight-hour day, gives us an advance of per cent, in wages, or, in point of fact, leaving us g}i per cent, to the bad. The average yearly wage of a flaxmill hand is £56 5s id, and I shall be pleased to learn whether, after consideration of the foregoing figures, drawn from the Year Book, “ Lux ” is still of the opinion that a reduction in' wages is necessary. In fine, if the flax, or any other industry cannot pay its workers a living wage, the sooner it becomes non-existent the better for all concerned. lam afraid that “ Lux’s” suggestion regarding the despatch of organisers to Manila, and the grafting of our present royalty system upon them, can hardly be said to come within the scheme of practical politics at present, and it is somewhat surprising to find a man with “Lux’s” evident knowledge of the trade, content to sit down with folded hands and dolorously chant the requiem of as valuable a national asset as New Zealand flax. If he has no better scheme to advance than a succession of cheap sneers at a Government which has proved its helpfulness to this industry, I should suggest that your correspondent should perpetrate his further fantasies under the more appropriate penname, —“The Light that Failed.” —I am, etc., Percy T. Robinson, Secretary of Mauawatu Flaxmills Employees’ Union.