COST OF LIVING BONUS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2427, 11 May 1922, Page 3

COST OF LIVING BONUS

REDUCTION OF FIVE SHILPER WEEK. GENERAL ORDER TO BE ISSUED. The Arbitration Court completed its pronouncement regarding the cost of living bonus late on Monday night. The Court decided to reduce the remuneration of adult'males by 5s weekly, of adult females by 2s 6d, and juniors by Is 6d.

A general order, operative from May 15th, will he issued. The Court deals with arguments adduced by both parties at the conference in Wellington, and holds that the employees’ arguments in support of a reduction of 13s are fallacious. Likewise, it cannot uphold the workers’ opposition to any reduction in wages. The Court reviews at length the economic and financial condi tions affecting trade and industry in New Zealand, and says the fall in prices has been felt most severely by the farmer, while the manufacturer, merchant and retailer are in turn all affected hv the position of the farmer. Practically the whole of our export, trade is in products of the sojl, and to a very largo extent, though not altogether, the purchasing power of the community depends upon that of the farmer. The general outlook Tor the manufacturing and building trade is similarly complicated by the deliberate restriction of purchases now opera tins’. The Court stresses the necessity for improved efficiency in production, and says (he trufli iniist be grasped dial the interests of employer ;yid worker are identical in the matter of meeting competit ion, and in order to meet' competition and stimulate trade, a reduction in production costs is essential. Tf would, the Court believes, lie beneficial if wages were to drop ]fis weekly, but a reduction of that amount would involve a reduction below the cos! of living l level, which, though it would wobnhly be oply f-nyiv-r .v • would nevertheless press hardly on a considerable section of the i • arbors. The br : "hfenm" outlook and improvuio> offcienev. w n re, ‘p the Court’s opinion, factors that it oug' ■ to regard as indicating that the • ’motion was not so serious as to j’difv a -ednoHop ip wages beyond the amount disclosed by t’-e cost < f living’ figures-.