CIVIL SERVICE SALARIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 281, 27 November 1929, Page 8

CIVIL SERVICE SALARIES.

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY. AGREEABLE TO INCREASES. WHEN STATE FINANCES PERMIT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday.

"I regret to observe that what appears to be nothing less than political bidding for the Public Service vote is being indulged in by the leaders of certain political parties in the Dominion," said the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, in an official reply to the statements made by the Leader of the Reform party on Civil Service salaries.

"It is fairly transparent/' said Sir Joseph, "that these very undesirable tactics are being waged in the hope that they may have a direct bearing on the approaching Hutt by-election. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Coates, has entered the lists, and states that, with a full sense of responsibility, he is prepared to increase by £15 a year the maxima for officers at the £240, £265 and £295 limits.

"Why Did Reform Do Nothing?" "May I ask him, seeing that since the retrenchment and reductions in the salaries of public servants by the Reform Government, in 1922, there have been numerous surpluses in the Consolidated Fund at the end of the successive financial years, why the Reform Government did nothing in the direction of increasing the salaries of these grades in the service? It canot be claimed that it had no opportunity of so doing. On the contrary, it brought about reductions in taxation which certainly did not directly benefit the lower paid classes -of our community, and it did not evince in a practical manner the sympathetic consideration for the public servants which is now professed.

Must Await Financial Results. "No Government could, at a juncture like the present, authorise a general increase in salaries without having Parliamentary sanction. The merest tyro in finance must know that a Government must wait until the financial results are ascertained at the close of each year's working, before embarking upon a programme of increased expenditure during the following financial year. It must be remembered, also that one of the most pressing problems that faced the country last session was that of unemployment, and what the Government has achieved in a practical manner has met with universal appreciation. All that has undoubtedly added to the demands upon the financial resources of the country.

"I reiterate in the strongest manner possible that the Government is sympathetic to the claims of the lower-paid officers of the Public Service for increased remuneration. This is fully borne out by the statement made on my behalf by the Acting-Leader of the House toward the close of tl*> last session. The following is an extract from the Hansard report: 'We sympathise with the public servants, particularly with the lowerpaid men, but we are up against a financial stringency, and we have to recognise that the interests of the country as a whole come before the interests of any one section. , "