SUPERANNUATED PUBLIC SERVANTS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 223, 15 June 1921, Page 5

SUPERANNUATED PUBLIC SERVANTS

Sir,—You have lately published letters from Captain Barclay and others as to the state of a certain class of superannuated Public Servants, and an evident attempt is being made to cast odium upon the Government for the deficiency of the allowances. I thing your readers should be reminded of the true position. All those who are getting less than .£6O a year are doing so because their service has been considerably under the full forty years. Take a man who has only been five years in the service: is it any hardship that he should only get one-twelfth of his salary instead of two-thirds. No doubt for short service people the allowance is small and inadequate for subsistence, but would it be justice to put them on an equality with those who had served and contributed four times as long. It should be realised that the claim is no' greater (already the payment is in accordance with their service) than that of the "man in the street” who has insufficient to support him. With every sympathy with the individuals placed in this unenviable position, one cannot but realise that the agitation is one got up by a certain class to extort money from the Government, and will tend to destroy the principle of superannuation altogether.—l am, etc., PUBLIC SERVANT.