LABOUR LEADER PROTESTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 801, 23 October 1929, Page 6

LABOUR LEADER PROTESTS

FAILURE TO RESTORE SALARIES CUT PROMISES TO CIVIL SERVICE Press Association PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Tuesday. Wholly disappointed with the pronouncement made by fb e Prime Minister respecting Civil Service salaries, Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, has issued a statement on the subject to the Press. Mr. Holland is certain the whole Labour movement would he equal.y disappointed. It is clear that the public servants of New Zealand had confidently expected that the injustices inflicted upon them by the Reform Government would be righted by the present Administration. The reductions made under the provisions of the Public Expenditure Adjustment Act, 1921, not only heavily penalised the’ public servants, but depreciated the general purchasing power of the communitj', and consequently adversely affected the whole economic conditions of New Zealand. It seemed ass if part of the purpose of the Reform Government, in malting these reductions, was to enable heavy taxation remissions to he made to very wealthy land and income tax PayerS ‘ A VOTE RECALLED

At the time of the passing of the Act, a definite promise was given that restoration would be made when com aitions improved. This was insisted upon on more than one occasion by members of the present Administration For instance, oil Auguct -9, 1924, Mr. T. M. Wilford moved in the House in favour of Post and Telegraph employees, who were earning £320 a year and under, being restored to the 1914 standard This was defeated by 30 votes to - . Among those who voted for the proposal were Messrs. Atmore de la Perrelle, Forbes, Ngata, Wilford, Ransom, Sidey, and Veitch. On August 30, 1928, Mr. J. McCombs, on behalf of the Labour Party, moved to the effect that since the rates paid in 1920 were based on a 62 per cent, increase in the cost ot living which increase had become stabilised since 1924, the public service salaries should be restored to the 1920 standard. Among those who voted with the Labour Party were Messrs. Atmore, Forbes, Ransom, Sidey, Veitch, and Wilford. So that not less than eight of the present Cabinet Ministers had in the past voted for what the public servants were now demanding, and which the Government had today refused. The Acting-Leader of the Government, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, in justifying his support of the amendment, referred to the recalled promise given that the cut would be restored when conditions improved, and argued that the principles that would actuate a private employer in such a case should also actuate the State. “APPEAL IRRESISTIBLE"

After eulogising the public service, Mr. Holland suggested that now that the service had come along and had insisted that conditions had improved immensely in regard to the returns of the departments, the Government should carry out the promise that was given when the reductions were made. Tie considered that the public servants’ appeal was irresistible, and lie did not know how it could be disregarded. It seemed to him that they had established a very clear case.

Mr. Holland said that in view of the votes given, and the pronouncements made by every member of the present Cabinet who was in the House on different occasions when the question of public service salaries was raised, the country was entitled to expect that the Government would honour commitments so made. The statement of policy just issued, however, contained no glimmer of hope for the overwhelming majority of members of tlie public service, and the widespread dissatisfaction in the ranks that had become more emphatically articulate within the past few months would be intensified a hundredfold.