THE WAGES QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2343, 16 July 1887, Page 2

THE WAGES QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In my simple opinion there is nothing that is keeping the country back more than the very high price of labour, and for this we may thank an extravagant Government. So long as the. civil servants of the Government get so high a pay, so long will the manufactercr, merchants, storekeepers and farmers have to pay such high wages, and the individual that the burden fall' hardest upon is the farmer. It is an axiom in trade to charge for the articles sold according to the cost of its production, but the fanner has not this advantage, for he has very often to sell the production of his farm so low that by the time he has paid for all labour and manure he finds that the crop costs as much in producing as it is worth when sold, especially if ho has to send it to Auckland, for the railway freight is like the labour, a “mill stone tied round his neck.” It will sink him to the bottom of the sea of poverty. Mr Editor, what a bundle of cantradictinn the Government are. They profess to construct railways for the benefit of the agriculturist; and then they charge a freight that is quite prohibitive. First the farmer has to pay fur the construction of those railways or is taxed for that purpose, and then this very paternal Government charge for freight very often so much as the goods are worth when sold. All the Governments hitherto have paid their railway employes too high, and have employed a great many more than they have any need for. Almost every little station that sends away about one truck of produce, and one passenger p»r month, has its station-master with his £l4O per year to do almost nothing. Then, again, look at the plate layers ; there are four or five on every length of four miles receiving lis Cd each, and one that is boss gets 8s per day. This is out of all proportion to the work that they do. These platelayers very often remind me of Jacob of old, of whom it is said that" he worshipped leaning on the top of his staff.” So with the platelayers ; 1 have very often seen them leaning on the top of their spade “ staffs,” but instead of worshipping they were killing time.

The Government could redneo their number by ono on every length without any detriment whatever to the linn, for three are equal to the work there is to be done and instead of paying them Gs and Od, and 8s per day should reduce their wages to os and Gs respectively. And not only the platelayers, hut all the employes of the department should have their salaries reduced accordingly, (as for Messrs Maxwell and Hudson their services would be very dear if they were to perform them gratuitously). I think, Mr Editor, that the Waikato Political Reform Association might with advantage add the plank of “ Wages ” to their platform. I contend that there would be no injustice done to the Government employes by lowering their wages when the price of living is taken into consideration for groceries, in short everything is very much cheaper now than it was six or seven years ago. The advantage that the manufacturer and the agriculturist would receive by tho Government lowering the wages of their employes is inestimable, for now with the present high price of wages no local industry can compete with the imported article. If we take beetroot growing for sugar, for instance, for which tiie Waikato is particularly adapted, the present price of labour will not admit of its growing and of its being manufactured into sugar, for the imported article wonld undersell the local, so that both the grower and the manufacturer would come to grief, but if the farmer and the manufacturers could get labour at, say, a reduction of one shilling per day, the farmer would be able to grow the raw article, and the manufacturers would be able to make it into sugar and compete with the imported article, thereby employing a considerable number of men, and also keeping the money in the country. Until labour is low enough to allow manufactories to exist, so long will there be depression in our midst.—Yours truly, Rive and Let Live.