LABOUR AND THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2192, 21 October 1920, Page 3

LABOUR AND THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Tiic Trades and Liil.iour Council, cl a meeting held at \\ ellhiglou lust week, decided (o recommend all id'liliafed unions in apply al life next ml It ini' of Ihe Arbitration Court in Wellington —in a few weeks* lime — for a special bonus to meet the rise in the price of butter. This will he in addition to the ordinary bonus dine from 3si October based on (he Government Statistician’s calculation for the six-monthly period from the 31s 1 March to fifith September. The point is made that if the usual course is followed of wailing till the end of the six-monthly period —31-st March next —the workers will have paid the increased rates for butter for six months, and the contract with the British Gorornment, on which the advance in price is based, will lapse at the same dale the end of March. The amount of special bonus claimed will be 2s Od per week, based on tlie consumption of an average family of five persons at one pound per head per week, Od being, the difference between the price paid —ls 9d —during the last six months, and 2s fid the price fixed J: or the coming half-year. In reply to any criticism that may bo forthcoming on the estimate of a consumption of one pound of butler per bead per week, when the average for the whole Dominion is worked out at half a pound, the union authorities point put that bread and butter is practically the staple food in a workingclass family —far more so than with more well-to-do households. The Vorking-class household as a rule has only one hot meal a day, the main article of food at the other two meals being bread and butter. Actual accounts of homes show a consumption of butter„as practically one pound pet head per week. The average household is reckoned at five, hence the 'claim for 2s fid per week special bonus. It is further argued that the stated average of one-half pound of. butter per head per week does not take into account the quantities consumed by farmers themselves from their own production and the small amount per head used in hotels, restaurants, and boardinghouses. If these were estimated at their, value the result would work out at much more than a half-pound per head.