UNDERPAID CIVIL SERVANTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 878, 26 July 1910, Page 4

UNDERPAID CIVIL SERVANTS.

Sir,—l notice a- great deal is being said about our low birth-rate -in this Dominion. I think our Government are themselves partly to blame for this state of affairs, in paying their civil servants such poor salaries. I . personally know of many cases where young men and girls are engaged for years (the best years of their lives) before they are able to marry on tho poor salary tho young man gets in the civil service, the. girl often going ■ into an office or.tho civil service to try and got enough to start housekeeping with. By tho time enough has been saved tho girl'has grown old, and often broken down in health, and unfit tq, take upon herself tho duties and cares of motherhood. Then, do the Government pay or help tho married man that has a young family any more than the single man or woman in their offices P There are some young women in tho service receiving as good a salary as a married man with two or three children. Then again, there is always tho risk of a civil servant being retired for no. fault of his own, if tho Govornment want to give Dreadnoughts or some other littlo gift to England oil borrorred money, and have to do something to raise tho interest on tho money, required. If tho civil servants had better salaries, and could feel safe in their billots, moro would marry when young, and tho birthrate would improve, for most young couples like to havo children if they have tho means to bring them up properly. That is important, for though wo want moro children, wo also want quality as well as quantity, and not children of men and women past the primo of life or broken-down in health. Then again, wo lose many of ourmost promising young men, educated at the expense of our Government, who, seein" no chanco of good openings, leavo our Dominion and aro to be found holding high positions and drawing high salaries in other countries. Let our Government do something to keep our young men in Now Zealand, then they will find, I venture to say, there would bo'a rise in the birth-rate. I would like to ask where is the civil servant who wishes' his son or sons to enter the service, and go through a life of hard work and poor pay? Better givo him a good education and send him to some other part of the world, where he has a chance of making a good living.—l am,, etc., ° A MOTHER OF SONS.