CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1922, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

A GRAVE PRINCIPLE AT STAKE. (To the Editor.) Sir, —Under the above heading you issued a homily to the. Post and Telegraph employees and something akin to a warning to the general public on the imaginary danger that would imperil their interests in having an efficient Post and Telegraph service at their disposal. Just supposing you are right in this (which I, for one, and, I believe, no employees of the Post and Telegraph Department will admit) are you not studying effect and leaving the cause to go hang? When Parliament decided to cut down the incomes of its employees, a big principle was certainly at stake, viz., whether the servants of the State, speaking generally, were so well rewarded for their services that they could readily accept the reduction. But was this the ease ? From the figures presented to the House by a Minister of the Crown, it would appear that the average rate of pay throughout the Public Service (including the £3OOO a year man and the £72 a year message boy) was 12s 4d per day. * If this figure shows anything startling in the way of overpayment I have yet to have my mental spectacles adjusted, for I cannot see any. The legislation of January has already reduced this average to Ils 4d per day, and holds in prospect a reduction to 10s 4d in July, and to 9s 8d in January of next year. Now the Post and Telegraph servant is a human being, and when he sees his income whittled away in this fashion he resents it, especially when neither the Government, members of Parliament, nor the Press, beyond saying that the cut had to be made, have produced any data or faets justifying the operation. The mere desire of the Government and the Press and those M.P.’s who voted with the majority to reduce expenditure in this way, is not, in itself, sufficient reason for the cuts that have been made. The Post and Telegraph employee feels that it is due to him to be shown one or more of ti. >*c things: (1) That he is overpaid in view of his responsibilities and duties; or (2) That the cost of living has fallen to a point justifying a pro rata decrease in his income; or

( (3) That the finances of the country < have fallen into such a critical state ' that only a surgical financial operation can restore them to a sound poeition. As to (1), keeping in mind the high

standard of health, character, and education demanded of Post and Telegraph people prior to employment and the efficiency and close application to their duties, plus a series of examinations failure to pass which blocks progress after they are in, and I think it will be admitted that over-payment is not the rule in the Post and Telegraph, but the exception. Well, as to (2), our agreement with the Government (through interviews with the Prime Minister) was that incomes should remain stable unless the cost of living rose or fell by steps of ten per cent, compared with the 1914 level. The best adjustment upwards was equal to a rise of 56 per cent, granted in April, 1920, since when the cost of living soared to over 80. The agreement, while prices were on the up grade, was repudiated, and, although it was again called into being by the Government when handling the recent salary redaction legislation, the Post and Telegraph man fails to see why it should operate before the cost of living falls to 46 per cent over the 1914 level. The latest official publication shows it to be in the vicinity of 50 per cent. That, therefore, brings us to (3). If financial disaster faced the country, was it not the duty of the Government to have placed the facts and figures before all citizens and called upon everyone (Post and Telegraph employee included) to come to the rescue of the State in proportion to their means? But, no, a veiled sweeping statement on the situation is all that the Press and the majority in Parliament though' necessary, and having apparently be... thoroughly stampeded by’ this inadequate evidence, they proceed to meet the national difficulty by cutting down the incomes of a section ■of the community. Second consideration must show you, Sir, tnat a Government which ' was able to surrender some £700,000 of revenue per medium of land and income tax' rebates and off-set that gift on the Treasury books by curtailing the incomes of State employees had either not got a grip on the financial situation, or else had no regard to the grave principle at stake, viz., that taxation for the needs of the State should be imposed on all citizens in proportion to their means. At any rate this is the situation as the Rost and Telegraph sees it. His confiderice in the fair dealing of the Government has been shattered. and feeling that his income and the happiness and comfort of his dependents have been and can again be made the plaything of the whim of the moment, he seeks to protect himself. Events have proved only too clearly’ that he cannot face the future with any confidence if he\tries to do so without assistance. In his search for tangible and sympathetic aid he has come across the Alliance of Labor, which seems to open the best hope of protection. If you can suggest an alternative now is the time to trot it out. For my part I can see none.—l am, etc.,

H. E. COMBS, Secretary, Post and Telegraph Offices’ Association. Wellington, March 9. (Mr. Combs does not state the position fairly regarding the average rate of pay. The message boys and others under' 21 years of age should be excluded from the calculation. When this is done, the average salary is £2BO per year, of 18s per day, a little different from the I’2/4 per day upon which Mr. Combs builds his argument. As a matter of fact the amount of salaries increased from £699,408 in 1914 to £1,636,825 in 1921. Mr. Massey’ has denied that he ever gave the officers the assurance that Mr. Combs mentions. The civil servants received bonuses from time to time because of the increase in the cost of living; there is now a decrease, and they’ should be prepared to accept the reductions, especially as the way is being made as easy as possible by the Government. To talk of surrendering £700,000 of revenue is quite beside the point. The civil servants received increments to meet the rising cost, and it was thoroughly understood at the time they were given that they would come off again when the cost fell. Let us remark that unless substantially more than £700,000 comes off the taxation in the near future there will be no further progress or enterprise in this country —the -high taxation under which the people are groanins will render it impossible. If the P. and T. members are so foolish as to be led by Mr. Combs into the camp of the Labor extremists they will rue the day. for they at once will forfeit the confidence of the rest of the community. who will never tolerate them becoming, or attempting to become, their masters instead of their servants. In

the past the P. and T. service has had the fullest confidence of the public, who are prepared to see that no injustice is done them, but so far Mr. Combs has utterly failed to substantiate any such claim: on the contrary, he has done his best, or his worst, to prejudice the true interests of the service 'by warmly espousing the proposal to link up with extreme labor.—-Ed.)