The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1922. THE WAGES “CUT.”

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1922. THE WAGES “CUT.”

The Labor 'Party in the House have lost no time in attacking the Government on the matter of reducing the emoluments of publie servants. Necessarily the muchvexed question of the cost of living as compared with 1914 was prominent in the discussion, but the real point at issue is whether the eostjpf administration shall be reduced so as to avoid more taxation, or whether there shall be an increase in the land and income tax in order to balance the Dominion’s finances. The responsibility resting on the Government in this matter, and particularly on the Premier, is by no means light, and it should evoke a genuine sympathy on the part of the bulk -of the people, nor should that sympathy be withheld from those whose weekly pay is being lessened by the reductions. That the present high cost of administration can be maintained in face o-f a considerable drop in revenue is impossible unless the ordinary revenue of the country is supplemented by funds from sources that are neither desirable noi- politic. Exactly to what extent the cost of living has declined is a matter of controversy. According to Mr. Holland, the cost of living has fallen in no part of the country in anything like the same ratio as the fall in wages. That may be true, but how can costs fall until wages decrease or until there is an increase in output? The deduction from the statement is that wages generally have fallen, and if that is the case it supports the Government's action in making the cut, for there is no sound reason why, if other workers outside Government employ have been forced by the law of supply and demand to accept less pay, that public servants should not also come under the same misfortune. That there must be sacrifices in the process of ad jur.tment is inevitable, and so long as one section of employers is not penalised more than another no injustice is committed. Mr. Holland claims that those receiving the higher salaries are not being called upon to suffer in the same ratio as the smaller salaried men in the public service. To that contention, the Premier gave a straight-out denial, adding that the higher paid men had never received any bonus, but he admitted that the process of scale increment of those salaries still continued. Mr. D. G. Sullivan contended that a public servant receiving £320 a year, after paying rent and super annuation, was only left .with 45s a week to provide for his family on a basis of 1914 prices. How he arrived at this result is best, known to himself, but a man in receipt of £6 a week should, even in these days, lie able to live fairly comfortably. It is certain that few of the producers in Taranaki have anywhere near this amount available for their long hours and arduous toil this season. Mr. Massey named three alternatives as means for meeting

'■u- present emergency—reducing the service, increasing taxation or making the cut in salaries—and he chose the last as the only practical remedy. With an increased expenditure over that ol 1914 approaching seventeen millions and a substantial drop in the income tax it is imperative tnat. effective steps be Taken to make both ends meet. There is a portion of Mr, Massey’s reply that will possibly create some doubt. He said he did not “favor reducing the personnel of the public service too drastically, because that meant turning out ten thousand people from employment. ’ He went on to say that “they were not going to keep people in the service for whom there was nothing to do.” Is it that the country has been and is paying salaries to people whose services are not required? If so then the duty of the Government is quite plain. No com-

mereial. concern can afford to retain the services of superfluous hands. To do so would be but to head for the bankruptcy court. The same applies, or Should apply, to Governments. It is, hard, of course, to throw men out of work at a time like the present when cutside work is not very plentiful, and it is natural, perhaps, that the Government should shrink from it. But the Government is the trustee of the public, and must follow the course dictated by business considerations, however unpleasant it may prove. There is a feeling that some of the Government services are still overmanned. which will not be dissipated by the Premier’s somewhat ambiguous statement, and at a time when the heavy taxation is seriously affecting industry and curbing enterprise, and when with it all the country is finding it difficult to make ends meet, the pruning knife should be applied still further. At the same time, Mr. Massey is deserving of credit for facing the situation'in respect of the second “cut.” A weaker man would in the present circumstances have postponed such an unpleasant duty. He promised as much as he could when he said that “if the drop in the eost of living will not allow the full cut, we are not going to make the full cut.” Mr. Holland’s suggestion to increase the taxation is typical of him and the party he leads. He fails, to see that to increase taxation must have the effect of reducing. not increasing, revenue," and 'driving capital out of the country, thus adding to our difficulties and causing further unemployment. One of the greatest disabilities under which the Dominion _ is laboring at present is the high taxation. Indeed, it is higher in respect to companies and businesses having large turnovers than in any other part of the British Empire, and if tilings are to improve and -further revenue to be ■ obtained by the Government departments it "will have to be substantially reduced, not increased.