The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1930 IS THE STATE WASTING MONEY?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1057, 22 August 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1930 IS THE STATE WASTING MONEY?

GOOD suggestions are so rare in Parliament that a first-class one cannot fail to command appreciation from observers of an arid centre of polities. Thus ready praise will or should be given to a suggestion by the Hon. W. Downie Stewart in the House of Representatives yesterday that the Government should appoint a commission of business experts to investigate and ascertain whether the cost of departmental administration has been reduced to a minimum as an essential practice of State economy. %

If there be any flaw in Mr. Stewart’s appreciable suggestion it is found in the fact that he forgot to suggest that the extravagance of Parliament should be included within the range of efficient investigation. For lack of economy and expensive methods of work the House of Representatives is the Dominion’s most profligate spendthrift, A council of business men with vision concentrated on service and profit easily could have completed within a working week all that has been achieved by Parliament in six weeks. Still, it is not likely that a commission will be appointed to investigate the unprofitable services of the present Legislature. Business men throughout the Dominion, who have been precipitated by a foolish Government’s oppressive taxation and a panic-stricken financial policy into a ruthless enforcement of drastic economy, have realised thoroughly that, for years past, the State has allowed departmental expenditure to get out of hand. Aud the same may be said about many of New Zealand’s six hundred and eightv-seven local bodies. Together they now employ over 84,000 workers at a wage cost of £19,000,000 a year. For a population of less than one and a-half millions these figures are grotesque. It cannot be denied with proof to the contrary that the immense increases in taxation since the war have been due largely to a great expansion of State expenditure. As Mr. Downie Stewart has noted, “the maximum of taxation for one year seemed to be taken as the minimum for the next and the basis from which to start all over again.”

So similarly it appears to have been with departmental expenditure. Eliminating "the abnormal cost of unemployment relief works and the distorted, unbalanced expenditure on the railways, the numbers of Public Service employees, representing . about one-fourth of the total workers employed by the State and local government bodies, have increased 84 per cent, in sixteen years, while the aggregate of salaries has increased 174 per cent, (average salary increase has been estimated at 49 per cent.). In the same period population has increased only 30 per cent. All the time the rising cost of State services has been met by increased taxation until New Zealand today is the second-highest taxed country in the world. It is not surprising that the results of bad administrative policy and profligate habits are being felt now in the serious effects of industrial and trade depression, reduced wages for many workers in private enterprise, and increased unemployment. No doubt the Government, advised by its departmental heads, will contend vehemently that the economy axe cannot be driven into the Public Service tree any deeper without bringing, it down. Few business men will be prepared to accept that contention. Close on £400,000 a year is being spent on travelling allowances for Ministers and departmental officials who frequently appear to have no place to rest the soles of their feet. They travel more often and farther than many professional carpet-baggers. Such extravagance ought to be severely cut. Then the increasing army of State inspectors should be reduced. Many of them are doing useful work; others, however, are merely irritating hindrances to the increase of production and the decrease of production costs. A thorough investigation of departmental methods and parasitic growth would clear the way to real economy.