RESTORATION OF "CUTS"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 131, 29 November 1929, Page 12

RESTORATION OF "CUTS"

"LABOUR'S CONSISTENCY"

POLICIES CONTRASTED

Dealing with the question of Public servants' laries as one of the main issues at the present time, Mr. Walter Nash, Labour candidate for the Hutt, stated at Ms meeting at Petone last night that when Labour came into power it would on the first opportunity do all it could to restore the wages of the workers, especially those on the basic rates, inside and outside the Public Service, to a sum sufficient to ensure a reasonable and adequate standard of living for' every man, woman, and child.

Eeferring to the statement of the Leader of the Opposition (the Eight Hon. J. G. Coates) that he was prepared to increase by £15 per annum the maxima for men at the £240, £265, and £295 limits, Mr. Nash said it had taken the Reform Party "eight years to get knowledge of the struggles of the lower paid officers in our Public Service. But who occasioned ihe struggles? Who accentuated the struggles by making the cuts in the salaries'? The cuts were responsible for the struggles, and those cuts were made by the Reform Party nearly eight years ago. For seven years they had control, and could have restored the cuts or increased the maxima at any time during that period. They not only failed to do so, but liad resisted every effort made by the Labour members to that end. It was a significant fact that the Reform manifesto of 1928 had contained not one word referring to the salaries of Public servants. The Reform Party never gave the workers anything. HISTORY OF THE "CUTS." The candidate traced the history of the "cuts" controversy at much length, and declared that whenever occasion had offered in Parliament the Labour Party had raised the question, while on every occasion the Reform Party had voted solidly against the restoration of the cuts.. In the majority of cases most of the Liberals had voted with the Labour Party in favour of restoring the 1920 standard. He stressed the fact that when the Reformers were in power they had turned down Labour's efforts to restore the cuts, while the Liberals had supported restoration. On seven occasions in 1923, said Mr. Nash, the Labour Party had moved motions in Parliament urging that the salary and wages "cuts" be restored. Those resolutions were mainly moved in conjunction with others, . urging that concessions should not be "made to income tax payers before the salary "cuts" had been restored to the teachers, the P. and T. officers, the railway'men, and outside workers in the bush. In 1924 the Labour Party moved three times in the same direction, and again in 1928 a motion was moved that the salaries of all Public Servants should be restored to the 1920 standard.

Last session, when Labour had moved to restore the 1920 standard to the P. and T. officers, the Government announced" that Sir Josepj Ward, as soon as he was well enough to return to the House, would make a statement setting out the Government's policy, but the statement, when published, was a complete refusal to meet the claims of any branch of the Public Service. In spite of all requests from the Labour Party, the Government was obdurate—and the Ministers who in the previous year had voted with the Labour Party in favour of just wages to the Public servants went into the lobby and voted with the Eeform Party to defeat Labour's motion. TO PLACATE THE CIVIL •SERVANTS. The Eeformers, anxious to placate the Public servants, gave notice of a further amendment, which was carried on the voices without division. This amendment showed the policy of the Eeform Party, in spite of Mr. Coates's belated discovery of the struggles of the Public servants on low salaries. It recommended the Government to expedite the statutory reclassifieation of the salaries of employees of the State in the several Departments as each reclassification was due, and further recommended that the Government make specific inquiries into the question of the minimum adult wages paid to its employees with a view to placing the lower-paia wage-earners on a fair and equitable basis, and restoring as far as was practicable the rate loss made by those receiving a salary not exceeding £295 per annum. "Now," said Mr. Nash, "when the session is over and a by-election is under way, Mr. Coates says he will increase the salaries by £15 per annum. He says he will when he knows he has no power—but when he had the power he did nothing. The full power passed from his hands in November last, but even after that date, had there been a semblance of sincerity in the Eeform Party's policy, he could have obtained the £15 for the Public bervants three weeks ago. There was nothing whatever to prevent him wording the Eeform Party's motion in such a way as to ensure that the £15 would have been granted." ACTIONS CONTRASTED. -Mr. Nash said that on 4th November last the United Party members had made an extraordinary somersault by voting to a man against a motion of a like nature to that which they had voted for when out of office. The candidate asked his hearers to contrast the policies and actions of the United and Eeform Parties with the actions and policy of the Labour Party. Every reasoning elector must be impressed with the consistency and sincerity of the Labour Party's desire to help those on the lower rung of the salary scales. .Referring again to Mr. Coates's sta.emen last week, in which he alluded to the struggles of the lower paid officers of the Public Service, Mr. * %f n a?£ if the Public servants on £240, £260, and £295 per annum had to struggle to make ends meet, how about the railway men on £4 0s 8d and £4 8s a week? And how about the struggles of housewives and others m the working-class home where there was a struggle to make ends meet?