RAILWAY FINANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1926, Page 13

RAILWAY FINANCE

(To the Editor.)

, Sir,—The article on . the Railway, finance appearing in your issue of ICth October should commend itself to the earnest consideration of every taxpayer. In addition to the figures jset forth therein J would also draw attention to the: fact that;-in.the 'last estimates the following votes appeared under the heading of Department of Agriculture: Railway' Department,, for carriage., of lime for bona fide farmers, ,£30,000; Railway Department, for portion of freight rate 3on fertilisers, £30,000. For the year ended- 31st March, 1924) . the • classification list of the. Railway Department showed ten officers, in receipt of £800 per; annum and over. For the year ended 31st March, 1926, this number had increased to twenty. Yet,the Ministers stress the need for economy and point to our adverse trade balance and the low prices of our products on- the English market. In many other Departments than the Railway, the leading-offi-cers have also had .their salaries increas--ed to a figure.higher than, what they were before the "cut." This, .of. course, means that their superannuation' allowances- are increased" by two-thirds 'of the amount of the increases in salary—and in frequent cases the officers will retire in the ]?♦•'.' future—^without having contributed more than a mere bagatelle extra, to. the Superannuation Fund. We should guard against, "inflation" of this nature, as it sends up the cost of administration, and reacts on the cost of living to the ordinary individual.—l am, etc., [VIGILANCE.