SUPERANNUATION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 73, 28 March 1933, Page 13

SUPERANNUATION

POSITION OF RAILWAY

FUND

Towards the close of the recent session of Parliament a return was presented to the Legislative Council on the motion of the Hon. C. J. Carriugton, giving the amounts received by superannuitants receiving over £700 a year. Subsequently a letter was written to "The Post" by Mr. W. M. Wright, president of the Public servants' Association, describing the return as "grossly misleading." This letter was subsequently copied by the "Auckland btar, to which paper Mr. Carrington later made the following statement:— 'I object to the statement made by Mr W. M. Wright, president o£ the Public Servants' Association, that the return is 'grossly misleading.' The return gave the official figures, and they are capable of no other explanation than the amounts denote. It is no use any official trying to mislead the public by drawing a red herring across the track. My reason for drawing attention to the huge payments already made and still to be made was on account of the fact that in 1921 there was a surplus in the Railway Fund, to which I was a former contributor amounting to £17,217, while in 1931 there was a debit of £49,395. The present-day contributors should be protected, and it was on their account that I drew such pointed attention to the large payments that are so quickly depleting the funds and rendering them unsound. "I pointed out in the Legislative Council last year the sums being drawn lay exgeneral managers and officers o£ the Railway Department, who were drawing incomes from the Railway Superannuation Fund. One ex-general manager received £2000 per annum and another £1446; one assistant manager £800 and another £827; a board chairman £1122, a board member ■ £810, another board member £784. The annual amount received by each of these ex-officers averages £1772.

"Superannuation funds were established for the purpose of relieving contributors from want after they had retired. Many contributors in the lower ranks have retired on an allowance extremely close to the bread line. With regard to the 27 annuitants referred to in the report to Parliament, it is extraordinary that in some cases those who succeeded them in office receive in salary less than their predecessors are now drawing by way of superannuation."