CORRESPONDENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1922, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE HOAD BACK TO PROSPERITY. (To the Editor). Sir, —Tt is a matter for general eoiigratulotion that the Welfare Ix'ague is now joining actively in the effort to induce the Government to effect such reductions in the public expenditure as will enable it in the near future to materially lessen the huge burden of taxation under which the whole country is staggering. Mr Harper, the secretary of the League, broke no new ground in his address to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce the other day, hut lie ' quoted a number of facts and figures j concerning the growth of the adminisI trative expenditure of the various De- | pnrtments of State which were simply ! appalling. I The total net expenditure of the Do- | minion between 1911 and 1922, a period of eight years, increased from .£11,825,86.3 to £28,466,8.38, while the net revenue, which, of course, had to be maintained by increased taxation, increased from £12,131,761 to £28,127,007. The casual person, who will not trouble to make himself acquainted with the facts, is content to accept this huge increase in the public ex pendituje as an inevitable result ot the war. “Oh yes,” he says, “ but there is the interest and sinking funds on the war loans, and the additional payments in the way of pensions.” He is ignorant of the facts, and remains, if not indifferent, wholly apathetic. But setting aside the payments for interest ami sinking funds and pensions altogether, as we t liiust do in making a useful comparison, the annual expenditure between 19M and 1922 increased from £8,937.813 to £18,301,866. This means that the permanent expenditure (including, that is. interest, sinking funds and pensions) during the eight-year period increased by nearly 252 per cent, and the annual expenditure (excluding these particular charges) by over 101 per cent. During the previous eightyear period, from 1906 to 1911. the cxlic'iictiture (including interest. sinking funds ami pensions) increased from £7,122,340-to £11,825,863 or slightly more than 65 per cent. What lias happened, so far as can lie ascertained from the official documents, may he stated in a few plain figures. The staffs of all the State Departments excepting working railways, between 1911 and 1922 increased in numbers from 11.587 to 17,561 and their total salaries grew from £1,914,016 to £4,328,816. The expenditure of the Railway Department during the same period grew from £3,001.180 to £6.173,233: of the Education Department from £1.131,755 to C2,-'80,502: and of the I’ost and Tclegmph Departmnt from £1.170,882 to £2,448.087. The salaries in the Rost and Telegraph Office grew from £699.245 to £ 1,099,828 ; in the Rrisons Department from £25.090 to £58,830 : in the l Roliee Department from £156,057 to £330,<131; in the Public Health Department from £11,326 to £84.374; in the Touiisl Department from £5,722 to £41,074 ; in the Lands ami Survey Department from £99,799 to £181,959; in the Agriculture Department from £37,978 to £171,356, and in the Education Department from £65,408 to £109,064. The great increase in salaries came during the "Imoni time” between 1918 and 1921, win'll everything in the garden was lovely and the Government thought, ns a great majority of the public did, that the civil servants should participate in the good things that were going. Rut the circumstances of to-day arc very different from those of two or three years ago. The Railways and the Post and Telegraph Office, instead of being a help to the revenue, as they were for many years, are now a burden upon the taxpayer, and the non-earn-ing Departments have become a vastly greater burden than they were before. T do not wish to suggest that the salaries of the Civil servants alone should he “economised.” Retrenchment, reorganisation, greater efficiency and harder work are urgently required everywhere. The Railway Department and the Post and Telegraph Department, in particular, stand sorely in need of a thorough overhaul. While the Railway expenditure between 1914 and 1922 rose from £2,880,323 to £0,(71,233, the net earnings of the system tell from £1,103,005 to £210,002. In the case of the post and telegraph service, while the salaries of the staff, as already stall'd, rose from £699,245 to £1.699,828, the returns for the year just closed show an enormous decrease in the business done. These deplorable results, it is fair to assume, were not brought about by inefficiency ;>r slackness on the part of the staffs, bill by tin- unsound methods employed fiy the management, such as reducing services and increasing charges, in its efforts to restore these Departments to their former financial position. But the situation demands immediate mil drastic measures to place the country’s finances in a sound condition and the members of the Rulilie Service canlot reasonably expect to he exempt from the sacrifices practically every ither member of the community is hong called upon to make. It is safe to say there is not a capitalist, a business

iiinn, a farmer, a professional man, a I tradesman or a manual worker that is | not feeling the pinch in one way or [mother. One of the tew conilorting rdloctions wo have in these troublesome times is that we are no worse otr lhan our neighbours. But whatever aierifiees may lie imposed upon the state employees, the Government has n right to remember that a servant who [•an he profitably employed is not an extravagance, and an obligation to discharge in seeing that tile great principle of equality of sacrifice is as closely observed as possible in all its economies. The rehabilitation of the public finances, as Mr Harper observed in bis address to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, is not a party question. Tt ought not to be a class olio. 11 e have board far too much about the “Red Feds’’ from one section of critics —the Welfare l.eague, by the way. among them—and far too much about the Capitalists from another. Neither of these handfuls of people is going to mould the destinies of this great little country, and neither of them is going to extricate it from its passing troubles. These are the tasks of the groat sane majority, composed mainly < of working people, ’ that waits only a bold lead from the Government to put its shoulder to the wheel, to insist upon the absolutely necessary economies that will make possible the imperative reduction in taxation, and so start the Dominion on the road back to its former prosperity. I am etc., TAX PAYING WORKER.