The Ten Per Cent. “Cut”

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 154, 26 March 1931, Page 11

The Ten Per Cent. “Cut”

Sir, —If the ten per cent, salary cut T- to be imposed upon,Public Servants there will. I hope, be provision for relief in special cases. Civil Servants are, as a rule, thrifty home-making .people. Many have committed themselves to the purchase of a house, furniture and even a car, and, luxuries apart, there is but a small margin of income left after the monthly liabilities have been met. Very few, I. am sure, are saving ten per cent., and the cut will be keenly felt by almost all. Here, id the earthquake area, we have extra difficulties. . Repairs to the house which I am purchasing will cost me about £BO. and hoW it is going to be paid I don’t know. We are quite reconciled, most of us, to some loss of sullary, but let there be a tribunal to allow concessions iu individual eases of special hardship.—l am, etc., CIVIS Hastings, March 23. Sir, —One aspect of the proposed wage and salary reductions demands immediate attention. The great majority are drawing remuneration based on the bare requirements of a small family. The flat, rate reduction is then going to fall mainly upon the women and children Fortunately for the politician, the latter have no vote. The man without “encumbrances” has a ‘margin frorn which to meet tbe cut. Plainly there should be an allowance or exemption for every dependant if the burden is to be equalised. Another aspect is that this 10 per cent, represents the spending money the normal household. It is to be feared that the present depression is.in danger of being acutely aggravated.—l am. etc., BUSINESS. Levin, March 23.