SUPERANNUATION FUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 261, 3 November 1932, Page 6

SUPERANNUATION FUNDS.

...'! THE TAXPAYER'S POSITION. . ! , _____ -■ f ' (To the Editor.) "Citizen" in your issue of the 26th ult. should have signed himself " Civil Servant," for his letter is the usual bluff which has been talked ever since there hae been a suggestion of a reduction of retiring allowances. The general public understands the position. The taxpayer is finding a large proportion of the pensions paid to civil servants, for what scheme could stand payments such as have been granted in the past? In the firet two years of retirement the recipient gets back all the money he paid in? Who finds the rest of tie money? The principle of superannuation is good, but the public object to men retiring oa £600 to £700 a year, and in some cases more. The country cannot afford it. "Citizen" talks of the State failing to meet its other obligations, interest payments on Government bonds, etc.; the Government has had to break faith with its .bondholders by deducting 10 per cent from the interest—even the "tax free" have been brought in—and it says little for the Civil Service when the retired men try to shirk carrying their share of the reductions in income which everybody has had to accept. When those in work had to suffer a 20 per cent "cut" the retired men should at least have offered to accept 10 per cent less, and the superannuation payments are only now , being brought, into line. No/ the retired civil servant has little ito complain of. lam sorry I am not one. RETIRED EMPLOYEE.