THE LABOUR QUESTION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 132, 18 August 1870, Page 6

THE LABOUR QUESTION.

(To the Editor of the, Tua/peha Times.) Sir, — I have perused, your report on the Labour Question. lam prebty well acquainted with this- district, and I think the employers of labour here, whosp statements appeared in your colum ( ns, have gone beyond facts, and greatly exaggerated the present require ments of the district. Some of the Blue Spur claim owners must either have made a mistake in the number of men they employ, or. perhaps did not expect to see their reports in your columns. The same remark, I think, applies to. our townsman, who, according to the evidence, w.ould have a thousand girls landed in Dunedin, and employed at from £25, to £30 a year. Considering the very high price of everything here compared with home prices, I think that if the wages for a good female servant were reduced to £25 a year, a girl would be a fool to veuture sixteen thousand miles, and not better her condition, as I believe she would be better at home with £10 a year than compelled to be a drudge on a farm in this country at £25. If the. labourer on the Blue Spur is in a better position than his master, the same cannot be said of the servant girls. I have said the prices of everything here, so far as servants girls are concerned, are very high. Take for instance a pair of boots. The price of slops is 15s, and if you get them made to order, the price is 255, and on our beautiful macadamised roads should a pair of the higher priced stand the

wear and tear of five weeks, it would be as much as could be expected from them ; at least I find it so, and the same applies to wearing apparel. With these remarks I beg to remain A Servant Girl. Lawrence, Aug. 10, 1870.