WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Pay. Tlic C'vii Cji-e (O ,r Su.m C-O'rtir>fi. .) M ! 3S Tr,.; ' •gP,• -r v i. ‘.2fried ib- r ’:• iv pi.o'.t.'fc tv - tbe dupu-;-.t ; o-! wl icb w (d up n him to ask thfit tbs rui.i'a y pi>y ved ail iwatiots of put' 0 .f? vf :e c i cl up for dofivt) service hould b rci-ui« ;qaal to tneii e.vii p'.y. T.a difficulty be B3w, of course, was :h».t it would be extremely ottfair to grunt ibis ooccsseien to pabiic eecvsnis without securjug a timilar advantage to those in private employment. The members oi tbe deputation based their appeal largely on a statement marts by Sir James Allen b mfelf eighteen racnihs ego in which he expressed a hope that employers would keep the recruits’ places open for them, pay part of their salaries and bear their genoral interests in view. But that was before the days of compulsory service, when employers could bs asked to assist in making the vnluntaiy system effective, and the whole position has changed since then. Now ibe most the Minister could do frr fhe deputation was to promise to refer its request to Mr Massey and Sir Jueeph Wmd when these gentlemen return to the Dominion,

COSTLY SAVING The claim of tbe deputation that a great part of the money which would be required to provide civil pay for public servants at the front would be obtained from savings, has loosened the tongues of a number of business men and others in regard to ihe various economies practised by the pnblio departments. Oae member of .the deputation stated ibat the places of the higher paid men at the front were being tilled by lower paid men and that in this way a single department was saving £BO,OOO or £90,000 a year. First year cadets at £SO a year were doing the work for which experienced ruen bad been receiving £l5O a year.

But c’o one pretends that tbe service is as well maintained by the inexperienced bands as it waa by the experienced hand’, and as a matter of fact the public hus contributed very materially io the way of ready sacrifice and patient sufferings towards the savings. To ask it now to pay a largely increased sum for an inferior service is, as it has been put colloquially, a little too strong. UNION RATES. Other sections of the community, comprising most of the restless people, who for lack of a better term are monly known aa Socialist, are rejoicing, perhaps a little prematurely, over the conversion of tbs civil servants to tbe prinoiple of union rates of pay for military service.

They have been insisting all along that the soldier should bs paid a living wage, according to the standards laid down by some of the ultra-progressive members of the House whan the Military Service Bill was passing through Parliament, and they now aie m looming the civil servants as allies in the claim for right and justice.

But probably the civil servants would require a much more precise definition of “ union rates ” than has yet been given by as a satisfactory solution of the problem they submitted to the Acting Prime Minister. Already married men at tho front, when recent concessions are taken into account aJe being paid practically what would be regarded as union rates at home. SECOND DIVISION. Judging from such particulars of the. movement as have been published the promoters of the Second Division League are venturing upon a somewhat hazardous experiment. The purposes of the League, it seems from these particulars, are to secure uniformity of action and to place the organised views of its members before tbe authorities.

Just tew far these purposes are subversive of military discipline it is for the Minister of Defence to say, but a high officer to whom the subject was mentioned to-day expressed himself as much astouished at men already enrolled as soldiers contemplating the formation of a “union” lo bring pressure upon their lawful commanders.

It was an innovation in military discipline that never had been attempted before and ought cot to be tolerated for a single moment. Tho fact that the Mayor is to preside at a meetieg to be held in Wellington on Tuesday to form a branch of the League here suggests that tbe intentions of tbe promoters have beeu misunderstood, but at the moment, this only add 3 <0 tbe in'eiest with which developments are being awrited.