OLD PUBLIC SERVANTS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 16, 13 October 1927, Page 13

OLD PUBLIC SERVANTS

Sir,—May I be allowed to call the attention of members of Parliament to an injustice which appears to me as a breach of trust on the part of the Legislature? Parliament, in approving the Superannuation Act, made certain promises to old public servants which are not being redeemed. A contract was made, in which, on account of certain deductions made monthly from the pay of Civil servants, they should • receive certain amounts of superannuation income. Is this being done? It is not. I can, perhaps, illustrate this statement best by a concrete example. A friend of mine was, just before the Great War, superannuated on £2OO a year. He has received for some years, not the £2OO voted for by Parliament, but 200 pieces of paper called £1 notes, but each of which has a purchasing value (in pre-war money) of about 13s He thus receives from the country which promised him £2OO per annum only £l3O in value—the bank notes are mere counters.

It will be said at once that he only suffers, like other people, from the fall in_ value of the pound sterling, but this is only a half-truth, which we are told is "ever the blackest of lies.” Almost every man iu New Zealand receives higher wages or higher salary than he did before the war, just to meet the rise in the "cost of living.” The Government and the employers see to this, for their officials, the Arbitration Court, looks after the workers. If a working man told the Court that he had to keep his family on £2 10s. a week there would be a howl from the trade unions; yet the poor old public servant whose case I quoted has to keep his family on that amount, and is told in Parliament that lie is an "extravagance,” although the greater part of his pav comes from working members of the Civil Service. What, I ask, is this ? Did the members of Parliament who, fifteen years ago, voted him £2OO a year, through statutory law, do so in good faith, and if so, is the pledge redeemed by paying £l3O a year?—l am, etc..

RETIRING ALLOWANCE. October 11.