CIVIL SERVICE RETRENCHMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 51, 2 March 1931, Page 8

CIVIL SERVICE RETRENCHMENT.

At such a time as this Civil servants must expect some form of retrenchment, but there is danger of grave injustice being done in carrying out such retrenchment. Railway officials with whom I have spoken are much perturbed regarding the rumour that it is pioposed to retire on superannuation all men with 3.1 years of service. Such a proposal nuifei-. have for lis oljccthe either the reduction of %taif, '>•: the provision of "openings for t-nr.cants t~> tile service. My contention is that such a, move would be false economy, and not at all in the best interests of the country. It would mean that these retired men would be thrown «:i to the superannuation funds several years earlier than normal, and everyone knows that the superannuation scheme has even now to be assisted by large annual grants from the Government. Many of these, men are still in the prime of life, and rendering good service to a Department which is sorely in need of efficieut service. I believe it would be better to retain the serices of all efficient men to the limit, and provide other avenues of employment for our young people. The curse of this country is that we have not done nearly enough toi provide opportunities for people to go ion the land, Year after year we have turned thousands of our young people! out of the schools, and have relied upon their absorption by various Government Departments and by business concerns. What proportion of them have gone on the land? A very small and totally inadequate number. With the present and past fictitious land values it has been impossible to secure land privately, so that we must turn to the Government for assistance; and it would have been much better to have used relief work for making unimproved land fit for settlement by our unfortunate unemployed than in the wasteful manner in which relief funds are *nov being used. G.T.