LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3094, 26 May 1917, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

STATE SERVANTS AND THE COST OF LIVING Sir,—The report of the interview between the deputation from the State Servants Association and the Acting-Prime Minister on the cost of living would be amusing were it not for the utter lack ot consideration shown !>v the speakers lor tho man on the land. If they are considered practical men in their own sphere of labour, for goodness sake let them stay there and not dabble in things that they showed they had no practical knowledge of. If the views expressed by tho deputation on how to reduce the cost of living had been put forward by a red fed. society oue could have passed them over with a smile; but for an association of responsible public servants to give utterance to such suggestions as were put forward by them indicates not only an absolute ignorance of the conditions under which the man on the land works, Jiut also an utter indifference, to how he would be affected by their proposals. Sir James Allen's reply to the speakers showed plainly his surprise that responsible and supposedly practical men dhould bring forward such absurd and unjust proposals.

The proportion of farmers who aro making large isrofits out-of the war is not so great as some city people seem to imagine. When it is considered that they have to pay income tax in addition to the -15 per cent, excess profits tax. and when to this is added the increased cost of living, and the increased cost of working their farms (a very biff item), the war profits of many of them dwindle down to the 10 per cent, bonus which public servants with less than .£3OO salary -enjoy, and .which, by the way, comes out of the farmers' profits. .Furthermore, these men have no anxiety where their salary is to come from, while at thoj present time the farmer is faced with the probability of a serious shortago of shipping to carry away his produce, which will mean heavy loss to him. Then what about all those on the land who have been hard hit by the war; small farmers'who have just made a start and find prices, of everything they use on the land gone up to such an extent that they have to do without many things and are crippled in their work because of it. Would the members of this State Servants' Association be willing that the country should paV these struggling farmers an extra, ten per cent, on their income during war time? If they think that way they did not give much indication. of it to Sir James Allen. .

There is another point. ■ Dunns the last season there has been excessive drought in some districts and heavy floods in others, causing serious losses to the farmers. There has been no report of siskins help from the Government to make this up. No, the farmers have been' taking this as all in the game., and especially at a time like this they have not thought of askins fox relief. Really, Sir. the report of the interview makes one suggest that it riiisht "bo profitable for the country if the Government would have inquiries made into the qualifications. of ■ the members of this association and see Whether some of them are I'eally worth the high salaries they receive.—l am, etc., '" FROM THE COUNTRY.