The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1908. STATE EMPLOYEES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 279, 18 August 1908, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1908. STATE EMPLOYEES.

The figures which we print in another column respecting the number of State employees in this country are, we venture to say, very remarkable and very ominous. According to a return furnished on the motion of Mr. A. L. llerdMASf in 1905, there were then over 22,000 persons, exclusive of school teachers, drawing salaries and wages from the public purse. The sum paid to the employees of the State amounted in the , financial year 1903-04 to not much less than three millions sterling! Since that time the functions of the State have been much extended, and the number of State employees has so largely increased that they may be estimated as now numbering about 40,000. That is an astonishingly large proportion of the adult population, but the voting power of these employees is 'far greater than their actual number. The number of civil servants and Stato employees of all kinds who have no close relatives possessed of the franchise, must be very small indeed. A large percentage of the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters of the State employees may reasonably be expected to express their relationship at the ballot box,, and "the Civil Service vote" is therefore much greater than the total vote of the people actually employed by the State. It is not unreasonable to assume that each State employee has on the average two adult friends or relatives whose votes will be cast like his own should occasion arise calling for a block vote of the Public Service. But taking a lower average than that, it may safely be said that the total vote-force of the class that is paid out of the public funds is 100,000, or about one-fifth of the vote-force of the whole population.

As our readers are aware, we have many times "emphasised the dangers to good government that reside in the jelrift of political power, or o£ the balance of power, into the hands of those who draw their pay from the Treasury. This is a danger ever present to all thoughtful men in older countries than Now Zealand. The strongest objection that has ever been urged against the nationalisation of railways has been, not its violition of " the rights of private enterprise," but its creation of a new source of political corruption. A great army of State employees, organised and armed with votes, and holding the balance of voting-force in any constituency, can prevent the election of any candidate who will not undertake to storm the Treasury on their behalf. When the number of State employees has sufficiently increased—and at the rate of increase in New Zealand, the time should not be far distant—the general taxpayer's purse will b'o entirely at their mercy. Exactly what can happen on a large scale was illustrated on a small scale at the recent Mayoral election in this city, when the tramways employees voted solidly for the candidate whom, in their opinion, and in a personal sense, it would pay them best to support. How far the' voting-force of State employees has already oporated in our politics cannot, of course, be estimated. But the figures which wo quote indicate the possibilities attached to this rapidly increasing army of State employees. ,

The opponents of State Socialism oppose it, not because they dread any departure from a fixed and petrified policy of laissez-aller, or even because they arc concerned about the individuals who, but for State ownership, would be making fortunes out of railways and telephones and thermal resorts. What they fear is the gradual starvation of liberty and the sapping of individual energy and self-reliance. And, more immediately, they fear the effects on our political life of such figures as we have been quoting. When to the large and increasing army of State employees there are added the mass of people in the pay of municipalities and local bodies, it will be. found that no part of the British Empire can compare with New Zealand in the ratio which is borne to population by the people who are paid by the taxpayer and the ratepayer, and who may exercise their votes to secure more than what is justly due to them. The increase in the cost of government in this country has gone up with the increase of taxation per head. The process of turning the country into a nation of State employees and State tenants is going on very rapidly indeed. The wonder is that 'the avowed' Socialists are not con-' tent to suspend their propaganda when they see the Government quietly and unostentatiously realising their ideal. But it is incredible, that the moderate section-of the public will always remain apathetic in the presence of so serious a drift as is disclosed by the vastness of the army of State servants.