INCREASED COST OF LIVING

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 265, 29 November 1939, Page 4

INCREASED COST OF LIVING

STATEMENT BY UNION SECRET Alt Y ' HIGHER, AYAGES AYANTEI) i | Figures showing :i decided increase j in the cost oi' living were submitted to the Arbitration Court by Mr. F. P. | Walsh, secretary of the Seamen’s Un- , ion, when pleading for inercfiucij wages lor employees of the DevojjpJmt Ferry Company. j, From the time the Court--made its basic wage pronouncement on November 2, 1936, up to last August, there had been an increase of 131 'points, or 15.2 per cent., in tlie cost of'living index, lie said. To tlii.s must be added the extra -id. in the pound wage tax, which made in. round! figures- an increase of 17 per cent. If the basic [ wage was amended accordingly ? it should ho raised by 13/- to £4/9/-. weekly. Since August the cost of living had rapidly risen, and he argued 1 that workers were entitled to at least a 10 per cent, increase in wages on the Court’s skilled work pronouncement of September, 1937. <,il * “Air. Nasii does not agree with you”, said M!r. W. Cecil Prime, employers’ representative on the Court. Air. AVnlsli said that “these big concerns wore pushing up the cost of living all the time and the Price Tribunal J was unable to prevent them.