The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1922. PUBLIC SERVICE ECONOMIES
Although the official statement from the Secretary of the Treasury, as submitted to Parliament on Wednesday last by the Prime Minister, contains no new information relative to the eeoomies so far effected in the public service, it served the useful purpose of emphasising the fact that the Government is seriously in earnest over the task of endeavoring to make the Dominion’s expenditure eome within the inevitably reduced revenue that will be collected, owing to the effect of the receflt fall in the value of the country’s products. The statement was intended quite as much for the’ edification of the general public as for members of Parliament—possibly more so.
The public wants its facts and figures presented in tabloid form, and only by such means is it possible to induce that absorption which is desirable. Henee it would certainly be a good move in future when it is specially necessary that the public should comprehend the financial situation that a separate statement should be issued in as attractive and condensed a form as possible. Bearing this in mind, we do not propose to inflict on our readers a further figure storm, but merely to allude to the salient points of the statement. In the first place it is a pleasing duty to congratulate the Government on their courage and determination in tackling one of the most unpleasant and invidious tasks that can fall to the lot of any administration. Fortunately the need for a drastic application of the pruning knife to national, and especially to departmental expenditure, is extremely rare, but when it cannot be avoided, there is presented an opportunity for a thorough overhaul, and the more thorough and searching the process is made, the greater should be the resultant benefits therefrom. While appreciating the firmness the Government has displayed in reducing the much overgrown expenditure on the public service, the people generally are more concerned with the justice or otherwise of the methods adopted, than with the expert ingenuity displayed by Treasury officials in making a mountain of figures that becloud the real economies. For instance, in the early part of the statement it was shown that as the result -of a steady reduction in expenditure during the last twelve months the savings at October 12 amounted to over £907,000. of which £202,000 represented salaries, and the balance “other charges,” but in the summarised results the savings up to the date mentioned are put down at nearly two and a half millions, the difference representing H--stoppage of flour and butter subsidies (which were only temporary expedients), and the debatable item of interest and sinking funds on revenue that was used instead of resorting to borrowing. Manifestly if revenue were available there was no need to borrow, so that the saving claimed is mythical. The reduction of the estimates can certainly be regarded as an item of economy, none the less gratifying because it was imperative. Whether thei estimate of two millions savings as the result of the gradual elimination of the cost of living increases in salaries and wages will be realised, time will show, but it will still be necessary to put a rigid cheek on increments, especially of the highly paid officers in the service, though it is some consolation to know that the expenditure candle will no longer be burning at both ends. The fact that the services of 2719 public servants were terminated during the year 1921, whose salaries amounted to nearly three-quar-ters of a million, shows that the Government is at last facing a duty that should have been undertaken much sooner. There is no occasion to comment on the comparative expenditure figures in the statement designed to show
that in reality there was only some £200,000 increase in ordinary expenditure in 1921 as against the figure for 1914. It is certainly an ingenious table, but can hardly be expected to be received at its face value. What the public will most readily- and gladly welcome is the statement by Mr. Massey that there are many savings still to be made. Having put his hand to the economy plough, there can be no turning back, and the more tho--1 roughly the field of operations is ! made productive of a lessening of ■l he burden of taxation, the more I grateful will the taxpayers be to the Government, who can rely on the whole-hearted approval of the country in all just efforts that are made in effective economy.
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Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 4
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753The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1922. PUBLIC SERVICE ECONOMIES Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 4
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