CHILD ENDOWMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1922, Page 5

CHILD ENDOWMENT.

NEW SYSTEM OF WAGES. PROPOSAL IN NEW SOUTH WALES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Sydney, May 26. Mr. Piddington, K.C., was the leader of a deputation to Sir George Fuller asking for a substitution of the child endowment scheme for the basic wage. Mr. Piddington said the basic wage was illogical and unfair, as it made no allowance whether a man had a number of children or none. At present the system provided for a family of three children. In the Commonwealth and New South Wales they had legislated for two children, the result being that average families were pinned to the bread line, whilst those with more than three were faced with privation. Statistics showed there was only nine-tenths of one child to each employee in the Commonwealth, which meant that employers were paying for approximately two million children not in existence. The remedy suggested was a flat minimum wage for a man and his wife alone, whilst in lieu of the allowance for three children, the employers should pay into a Commonwealth pool sufficient for the heeds of all children in the Commonwealth. Under such a scheme a standard of comfort of £5 16s per week could be brought into the homes of every worker without any additional burden to industries and the finances of the country. Sir George Fuller welcomed this solution of the industrial unrest, and promised that Cabinet would investigate the proposition.