TEN PER CENT. REDUCTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 282, 17 August 1880, Page 2

TEN PER CENT. REDUCTION.

TO THE EBITOK. Sib, —The preser.t Government have stated their intention of making the pay, &c, of those in their employ on a level with those in mercantile institutions. In the first place I may state that the rate of wages paid by the former is not so high as those paid in mercantile houses. We will consider in the first place the hours of labor, rate of wages paid, and the responsibilities of the various business concerns. Take for instance the merchant's office. If a manager he will get £IOOO a year, and the next officer say £SOO, and the lowest possibly as small a remuneration as £l2O a year, and those generally attend to their duties from 9'u.m. till 4.?0 p.m.; and who are thej' responsible to? Why, only to one head—most likely the proprietor. We will also consider the merchant's storeman, who goes on duty at 8 a.m. and leaves at 5 p.m. If he is a man of trust and good character, he will get from 10s to 12s per day, and no responsibility. Let us now look to the Government clerk (having no friend in Parliament) ; say he gets, if holding what they term a high position, £3OO per annum. This individual has to account to, and is held responsible, by some creature who has a wire-puller behind the scenes, and not, as he would like to have, a common business man: He is called upon to attend at all hours of the day and night, and can be snubbed at his superior's pleasure. Let us consider now the Raildepartment. In this department let us take say the station-masters, whose daily hours of duty are from daylight till dark, and mostly employed on Sundays, making out their returns, &c. ; and for these duties they receive from £IOO to £2OO per year, and scarcely more than half a dozen reach £2OO per annum. Have they only one master ; nay a dozen, and the understrappers take it upon themselves to snub the poor underlings, unknown to the manager. Are these men on an equal footing with the merchant service? I say emphatically no. Now, let us consider the guards, and put these men on a footing with the storemen. There is not a guard in the service but what his duties will average from 10 to 12 hours per day the year round, and what are his responsibilities ? In the first place he must be steady and honest, have tact in dealing with the public, and especially to look after their safety, besides having a hundred and one other duties to attend to ; in fact, to become what they style a first-class guard one would require to serve some years in 1 the service to qualify him for the duties

and for the hours of labor. I defy the management to prove that they pay him more than Is per hour for his service. Let them try if an inexperienced man would answer, and they would soon find out that the excess from returns would be very small ; the trains not running to time, passengers' burgage lost, and, above all, a sense of danger spreading over the face of the passengers. I say let us pay the men with trains a good wage, and we shall have, at any rate, good men with trains. The Hon. Minister of Public Works complimented the guards on this section, and certainly what they call the "express train" has attached to it competent officers, that are deserving of consideration at the hands of the Government, as this seems to be the only remedy in future in the railway management. —1 am., &c, A LOVER OF JUSTICE.