RISING COST OF LIVING.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 September 1918, Page 5

RISING COST OF LIVING.

ITS RELATION TO WAGES

VIEWS OP EMPLOYERS.

A very large number of industrial disputes have been dealt with, during the year through the association’s officers, says the annual-reopn of the , Auckland Provincial- ..Employers’ Association. The principal feature in these disputes had been the continual • ■ demand for increased wages Y tq mee? i the ever increasing cost of living. In. the case :of lower . .paid workers Tt ' ‘ was undoubtedly necessary that waig- ■ es should be increased, but to equally.' increase ;all wagel; merely • added a like amount to the cost of production, and consequently to the cost of living. Employers therefore were ; constantly faced with the problem of-how to increase the wages of workers without simultaneously depreciating j the : purchasing power of the sovereign. Under present conditions there seemed to fie no solution of the problem, and only the temporary expedient. of continually raising wages was being resorted to by the Government, Conciliation Councils, and Arbitration Court. Probably it would not be until r after the war, and when conditions have again become normal, that anything near a just proportion could be nrrived. at. At present sections of the wage-earners who were in a position to force matters were demanding and getting increases proportionately larger than their fellow-workers m other industries,-ignoring the fact that those fellow-workers must bear a large portion of the increase. On the other hand, the whole of the wageearners were demanding that the public, through the employers, shoul'd pay them more for their services. As the public was largely composed of the wage-earners themselves, they were individually in no better position than » they were before the increase took place. "" PAY OF POLICE FORCE. INCREASED RATES APPROVED. The Minister in Charge of Police, the Hon. T. M. Wilford, has announced that Cabinet has agreed to his recommendation for a permanent increase of wages of Is 6d a day to non-com-missioned officers and constables of the police force. In adition a war bon- ! us, which is only a temporary grant, 1 will bo paid. The members of the police force in Auckland greatly appreciate Cabinet’s decision to increase permanently the rates of pay and to grant a war bonus. The minimum daily pay at present received by those who will benefit under the new scale are:—Senior sergeants, 14s 6d; sergeants 12s, and 2s house allowance; chief detectives 165.. 6d; detective sergeants los; detectives, 11s 6d; constables, 9s, and 1/6 extra for house allowance; probationary constables, 7s. With a war bonus of £ls a year, or roughly, lOd a day,, the pay will be increased by 2s 4d a day, or 16s 4d a week. Members of the force, when questioned, stated that- the increase was entirely satis-, factory. It was also considered to be well warranted, men of the rank and file having had a struggle to make both ends meet on the present-scale, in view of the extra cost of living, brought about by war conditions.