WAR BONUSES TO CIVIL SERVANTS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2879, 18 September 1916, Page 4

WAR BONUSES TO CIVIL SERVANTS

*l at stlck ls . £°°d enough to beat mo National Government with, and this probably accounts for Mr. It. 1< letoher's singular comments in a contemporary. Tho member for Wellington Central unbosomed himself regarding the votes on tho Supplementary Estimates to highly-paid public servants, and in the course of a pathetic admission of his own failuro to mako protest gave utterance to the following remarks:— "Tlie tiling was put through in tho early part of the morning, and most of the mombcra wero not aware of what tras being done. ... I don't think half-a-dozen members knew what was being done. The amounts were put through by way of special grant, not by way of war bonus.. It didn't appear as war bonus at all, and that was how it escaped notice. ... I certainly don't know how it got through. I didn't bob it. It is difficult for a' man who is a new clium in the House to detect these things. The Supplementary Estimates go through so quickly that you haven't time to realiso what is being done." It may possibly astonish those who read tho plaintive protest snd who do not know Mb. Fletcher to loarn that tho particular matter referred to by him not only did not escape notice, but was very fully discussed in Parliament. If Mr. Fletcher or anyone else chooses to turn up Hansard of last session they will sco that on page 871, when tho Supplementary Estimates wero before the House, Mr. Anderson entered a very strong protest against the special payments to highly-paid Government officials; that Mr. Thomson followed him in a similar strain j that Sir Joseph Ward defended tho increases at considerable length; that Mr. R. A. Wright discussed the method of distribution, and that Messrs. Harris, Young, Hornsby, M'Combs, Isitt, Dr. Thaoeer, and others all referred to tho "increases and condemned them. Yet Mr. Fletohbr says they cscapcd tho notice of tho House, and that thoy were rushed through. Mr. Fletcher excuses his failuro to protest on tho plea that as a young member it was difficult for him to detect these things. Docs ho really mean that ho heard all tho_ speeches of protest and explanation without knowing what it was all about? Or is it that ho was: not in his placo in tho House when h'is protest was needed 1 Wc have little sympathy with the paymont of the war bonus to civil servants because wo believe that it was a wrong thing for the Government to do -at the present time. But there are two sides to the question. It is natural that the bonus to tho lower-paid officials should csoape _ criticism, while that to the more 'highly paid is condoned. Little heed, is given by the unthinking to tho circumstances of a grant when it is a case of a- man with a fairly substantial salary receiving some addition to his remuneration. It must be wrong, they say, to pay the already highly paid ntoro than they aro getting. Yet Sir Joseph Ward, in defending the additions now complained or, mado out a very good case. "There aro oircumstances," ho stated, "connected with each of tho increases on tho Estimates that call on tho Government and Parliament to provide them; and in addition to that wo gavo no increases last session becauso wo wore in doubt as to tho conditions that might arise over ccrtain matters. Wo aro not in' doubt about them now, and wo have to do whait is right and what is just. . . . Honourable members should bear in mind that tho, only men in tho Public Servico who were not given increases last year were those heads of Departments [tho subject of attack.]" Tho Finance Minister later on gavo tho speoial j grounds on which some of tho increases wcro made. Wo merely refer to tho matter now because an endeavour is being made by some of his own friends to cast discredit on Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues under tho pretext that these special grants were sui reptitiously rushed through Parliament, and that they wero given without any justification. Both allegations aro unfounded.