SCRIBBLING PAD NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1929, Page 7

SCRIBBLING PAD NOTES

By X. “ Almoner ” writing in the Auckland “Star” says: “There are numerous young officers in the Civil Servile whose training has cost the Government many hundreds of pounds who will not hesitate to sever the link if the prospect of their future pension is at all uncertain. . . . Such inventions, as the

talkies and radio have opened up a demand for highly skilled technical officers coupled with administrative ability, and executive officers feel that they can now face the future with more confidence in the knowledge that their services can command a higher economic value which would more than compensate them for the guarantee of a superannuation allowance after forty years’ service at a salary of 30 to 40 per cent below the commercial world level.” I wonder whether “Almoner” ever heard of the fable of the dog and the shadow, if he is firmly convinced he is receiving 30 to 40 per cent less than he is earning, he should of course look for a better iob. But he will probably find when he leaves the sheltering wing of the Civil Service and comes 'out in the cold, cold world of commercial competition that his confidence in his abilit : es and their earning power has been misplaced.

“ You are education mad in New Zealand to-day,” says Sir Thomas -Mackenzie, “and the sooner a change is made the better.”

A writer in a northern paper says he learnt as a schoolboy in his first lesson on economics that “ factories are the result, not- the cause of wealth. Many factory-owners in New Zealand have learned this lately from bitter experience. if their economic education had not been so neglected they would not have established factories, employed labour and in consequence lost money. Unfortunately the old idea was that factories were a means to an end—profitable production and creation of wealth. I am mildly curious however to know in what school of economics the opposite impression was conveyed to the youthful mind. Possibly it was a Communist Sunday school., The gross Australian debt is shown by the Federal Treasurer’s budget to he £1,099,640,385 or an average of £173 10s 8d per head of population. There is likely to ho a howling row now as to who is to pay the interest, etc. on this ehormous sum, and the question has been raised as to what are necessities of life and what are luxuries. Pro" viding the answer to this is likely to open up a nice little controversy, but it might be made applicable to New Zealand and the “ cost of living ” figures on which a basis for fixing wages is supposed to be arrived at.