MISLEADING CATCH PHRASE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 12

MISLEADING CATCH PHRASE

Opposition to the Public Service salary cuts is being worked up with catch phrases. Some of these have a speciousappearance, but are in truth misleading. One of the most misleading isjthe, Statement that the Public servants, who are bnS'ninth of the workers of the Dominion, are being' asked tp find one-third of the deficiency.;: This appears correct—to those/whose reasoning is limited to a sum in simple arithmetic, that £1,----500,000 is a third 'of £4,500,000. It is-misleading because £4,500,000 is not .the whole national loss. It is merely-the prospective shortage in the 'Government Budget. The national loss'of-income has not. been calculated^ Mr. Coateis said yesterday that the prices realised by primary producers./ were: down by £20,000,000^ As;; this loss does not stop there (it involves further losses by all who supply goods and services for the producers) ', it may be assumed that the loss of national income is between, £30,000,000 and £40,000,000. The people of the country as a whole must bear this. The reduction in national income is reflected in a fall of Government revenue, and the Public servants are asked to take their share in meeting that part i of'the loss. As has been shown, it is not the whole'loss. Other parts, of the national loss are being borne by private bt|ssnesses, and the employers and proprietors of these businesses are-carrying .that load. In many instances v the private employees are in a worse, position than the public servants. They hove not had the alternative of a 10 per cent. cut. They have lost their employment,.because private employers cannot do as the Government proposes, and recoup one-third from employee's and twothirds from the general public. Private employers have no taxable public on whom they may place almost two-thirds of their deficiency.