SECRECY WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 214, 10 September 1931, Page 11

SECRECY WANTED.

FINANCE INVESTIGATION.

DELIBERATIONS BEGUN

PUBLIC SERVICE CASE PRESENTED

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The deliberative* stage has benn reached by the Inter-party Committee, though summaries of the evidence thaiare being made by the secretariat are not yet complete. It is reported that a number of members of the committee have expressed resentment at the extensive "leakage" of portions of the evidence, it being contended that the reports in some newspapers are so grossly incorrect as ,to indicate an intention to make party profit from the proceedings. There was a noticeable reluctance on the part of members of the committee to meet pressmen when the committee adjourned last night, arid it is possible there will be a movement in the House to constitute' the committee a Select Committee, thus giving it complete protection during its deliberative stage from the publication of anything, which occurs. Public Service Salaries. One of the final statements submitted to the committee was from all the Public Service and railway organisations, oxpressing the hope that the economy measures will not further penalise the Public Service, as it has been seriously prejudiced by similar'"cuts," beginning with two in 1922, which have not been restored. The service organisations contended that if their salaries had been regulated by the Arbitration Court, in accordance with variations in the coat of living, there would have been only a minor reduction in 1922, which would have been fully restored in the following year. The 10 per cent reduction last Apri} had resulted in cases of hardship, and no relief had yet be«u granted under' the "hardship clause" in the Finance Act., A strong point was made of the large number of low-paid employees of the State, SO per cent earning less than £271 annually, and 97 per cent less than £451. The effects of the 1922 reduction were still being felt, partly because retail prices were not proportionately reduced, but principally because many State servant entered into commitments for dwellings and had still to meet payments on trie old rate of interest, while their diminished wages prevented them meeting the full interest payments, thus risking their title. Logically, they should ask the State to reduce the capital value of their homes in proportion to any asc3itained appreciation in the value cf money, and certainly to lower the raie of interest on such loans. The public servants' representatives* emphasised their contention that reduced wages, leading to decreased purchasing power, tended to depress instead Of improve the general situation.