“WHERE DO I GOME IN?"

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 836, 10 March 1903, Page 3

“WHERE DO I GOME IN?"

(Wairarapa Times.)

“Where do I come in? ” says the consumer. Tho Arbitration Court arranges all things for me ; tho Augurs three, who constitute tho tribunal, are my fate, and I feel that

Conciliation is vexation, Arbitration is as bad ; The rule of the three doth puzzle me, ] And their practice drives me mad. They touch the building trade, and my rent goes up ; they have a word with the butcher, and my meat rises in price ; they speak with my tailor, and bis bill grows longer ; they talk to my baker, and my bread rises in a way I don’t ask for. One represents tho employer; the second Augur represents tho working-man ; and the° third Augur acts as referee for the first and for the second. But where do I, the consumer, come in ? Who represents mn - or what voice have I in the settle-

mo , or WlicbU > umu ments which are made ? ” It is the consumer who is overlooked in this colony. His name is legion ; but he is outside all the little games and'his only privilege is to pay for the cost of them. Our rulors and representatives raise their own salaries and collect tho increase from tho consumer. They double tho consumers’ taxes ; and when he asks what ho gets in return for tho extra payment he finds that he obtains practically nothing. The consumer is the man in the shade tho employer and the employeo are the men in the sun, 11 Tell it not in Gath, whisper it not in the gates of Askalon ; ” but it is none the less true that both g-fil. ployer and employee win by and tho consumer byy" e _ may j, 0 argued that tb" and employee are both consumers ; but we get at the crux of the thing when We consider that master and men gain more by arbitration as ployers and employees, t jjey loge as consumers.