PRISON LABOUR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 312, 2 November 1880, Page 2

PRISON LABOUR.

In reference to the telegraphic statement that the Lyttelton Borough Council refused to accept the Government terms tor prison labour, the Post ■ayß :—" The annoucement made a few days ago that the Government had intimated to local bodies employing prison labour that in future they would be required to pay for it at the rate of 7 per cent, of the current rates was perhaps calculated to create a wrong impression th°t the government intended to compete with free labour by understanding in the

market. The fact, however is certaiii local bodies, notably in tM bury, have hitherto enjoyed th» great advantages of gnituitunus prisnn labour -AMi for their public works. Injustice to" '■'■■& the free labourers, who found employ-.',1 nient so scarce, and to the rest of the Colony who contributed towards the cost -1;| of the prison maintenance,. it*rhas been ''-4 therefore decided that in future bodies, instead of being allowed the | u?e of prison labour gratis—in fact at - ,| the expons of the. whole Colony—shall "•■{ pay for it at the rate of 25 per cent. | under the current scale of wages, prison ', A labour being valued at about so much t; less than free labour in respects,- of the results given. It is quite ciear ; 'that so ; , long as local bodies could get their"-work .-'; donp without having to pay for it they would not be likely to employ free labourers, whom th»y would have to pay, and so the unfortunate unemployed were unable to obtain work because they had so formidable a competitor in "gratuitous convict labour. Under the new. arrangement, although the rate of pay demanded by the Government for prison labour is nominally 25 per cent less than current wages. the work produced is admittedly so far inferior as to compensate fully for the difference- The result, is that the two classes of labour will com~ pete on equal terms, and it now appears that one local body at any rate refuses to employ prison labour even at 25 per cent, under current rates. If this example is followed by other bodies we believe that the Government have in view certain worhc on which the convict - labour can be utilised without in any way entering into competition with the ordinary wages clast of" workmen."