WAGES IN WAR TIME.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 173, 12 May 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

WAGES IN WAR TIME.

In delivering reserved judgment at Melbourne in a claim made by the Federated Clerks' Union of Australia for increased wages and better working conditions generally in thtf various Commonwealth Departments, Mr Justice Powers made some interesting observations on the present economic situation : "I realise," he said, "that people cannot live in these days in reasonable comfort on the living wage prescribed, if they attempt to maintain the same regimen as in the days before the war and the drought. Jf clothing goes up in price ordinary people are more careful of what they possess and of new purchases. If butter goes up to a high price, other things are used in its place. If meat goes up in price, less is used and more of other foods equally good. Because pork has gone up 100 per cent., the cost of living has not doubled. People are using something cheaper, instead. No one who is not extravagant lives n these days juist as he did before the war. Money is needed for the war and to help those who fight for us, and it is not too much to expect those who cannot, or will not, enlist, and who are free from the horrors, dangers and direct losses of war itself, to put up with some sacrifices, once a living wage is secured. The nation will be poorer after the war, and all must bear their fair share of the burden willingly, or unwillingly, when we begin tg feel the effects of the war in Australia, as we must do later on. Strikes to get more out of the public funds, based/ on abnormal war prices—except for a living wage—under the circumstances ought to be the last resort of Australians in war-time. If a claim cannot bear nvestigation by a Court or Wages Board it ought not to be pressed for in these times."