EFFECT OF CUTS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1932, Page 3

EFFECT OF CUTS

ON CIVIL SERVICE.

SOME CRUMBS OF COMFORT.

The recent wage and salary “cut” in the Civil Service is briefly referred to editorially jn the May number of the “Public Service Journal.” “The pruning knife ha;s been in ! constant operation in connection with Jour developmental and social services, X with its consequent retrenchment,” says the “Public Service Journal.” “This, of course, must be endured,

however great the individual hardship

and swelling of the ranks of the unemployed, ' for a ' member of an efficient Public Service cannot expect to be-retained in office if the need for his" services has vanished. Not content with this measure of sacrifice, however, the Government, backed by the recommendations of two Commissions, has singled out the Public Service for special taxation in the nature of further reductions.” ' The article goes on to quote the Act,

and continues: ‘‘The year 1931, therei fore', finds the Public Service, as the result of this legislation, with the great majority of its members on a salary scale basis which is below that of the year 1914, and still with a cost-of-living increase of over 40 per cent, above pre-war to face. Possibly there may be some decrease in that percentage by reason of the Government’s interest and rent reduction propsals, but this will not alleviate bhe position- created overmuch. As “crumbs and comfort” to the members of the Service, the journal mentions the eleventh-hour abandonment by the Government of the clause in the Bill withholding salary increments ; the exemption of allowances travelling allowances) which are not in the nature of salary from the reduction; and the provision enabling those who so elect to make superannuations contributions on their higher salaries, though officers who elect to pay on their lower salaries will not receive a refund of their excess contributions until they retire from the Public Service.