COST OF LIVING.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1922, Page 4

COST OF LIVING.

FIXING THE BASIC WAGE. ARBITRATION COURT’S DECISION EXPECTED TO-DAY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. To-morrow, at the Arbtiration Court, His Honour Mr. Justice Frazer will probably deliver the Court’s anxiously-awaited pronouncement on wages and the cost of living. The fact was notified during the’ hearing of a case to-day, when after a short retirement of members of the Court His Honour stated that those present would no doubt be pleased to hear that the Court had practically arrived at a decision on the matter. They had been in communication with the Government Statistician, and it was expected that a definite pronouncement would be made on Friday. His Honour, smiling, declined to be drawn regarding hte nature of the pronouncement, remarking that it was inadviaabh to take seriously all that had appeared in the newspapers. In making an appeal to the Arbitration Court in connection with the revision of the basic wage, Mr. W. A. Grenfell (employers’ representative) said in April, 1920, when the whole Dominion waa flushed with the greatest period of prosperity, brought about by the prices of primary products and the expenditure of war moneys, the Court saw fit materially to increase the rate of wages. “Will the Court please particularly note,” added His Honour, “that the only grounds upon Y which the Court founded its determination

to increase these rates were that there was a general shortage of labor and that employers had voluntarily raised the wagei of workers above the basic wage fixed bv the Court in 1919 ? The position to-day » quite a contrast, for there is no shortags of labor —a surplus rather—and employee are now anxious to secure a reduction of wages.”