CIVIL SERVICE SURVEYORS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24369, 22 September 1944, Page 9

CIVIL SERVICE SURVEYORS

COMMENT ON PAY

MINISTER’S ADDRESS TO

INSTITUTE

mi) WELLINGTON, September 21. ' Mr’ H. L. Paterson, president of the « eW - Zealand Institute, of Surveyors, at the annual meeting, commented that members in the civil service were nrobably the lowest paid professional men in the Empire. In the last few years the remuneration of private surveyors had been reasonably stabilised, but they had a duty to the large proportion of their fellows in the civil service. The Minister of Lands (the Hon. C. r Skinner), who opened the conference, said he was amazed at the low salaries paid to surveyors and engineers compared with those overseas. It was no wonder we lost a lot of good men overseas. Mr Skinner paid a high tribute to the work of institute members in the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, and said the methods they had largely helped to evolve, such as flash spotting and range finding by sound, had become standard throughout the British Army. Much of the Bth Army’s success in Africa was due to these methods. There were not nearly enough surveyors in New Zealand. All sorts of work was held up for lack of them. The Minister referred to priorities in demobilisation in regard to engineers, surveyors, and such personnel who could be put into jobs that had been planned, and get them under way. To lose sight of that aspect l would mean getting into difficulties.