The Economic Commission’s Report

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 169, 13 April 1932, Page 11

The Economic Commission’s Report

Sir, A notable omission from the report of the recent Economic Commission is the subject of Government motor-cars This abuse was first referred to by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, but is one to which few parts of the country could not bear -witness. In quite small towns you may find a fleet of half, s dozen or more departmental cars, with chauffeurs in some cases to tend and drive them. With the information at its disposal the commission should be able to suggest a curtailment of this abuse; or as it is of a kind very difficult to regulate if onee permitted, its total abolition. To give young men free cars and petrol is naturally accepted as an invitation to seek tb« open spaces if for no other reason than to “blow in” on colleagues oO miles away, and, of course, a pretext can always be found. If a small car allowance were made to officers whose work requires them to travel; there is no question but a large amount of official gadding about could be dispensed with, and the talents of these tourists more profitably employed. Then there is the question of the graduated salary tax, in which the commission forsees anomalies; although there can be no greater anomaly than reducing a man already below the bread line, and possible anomalies in the graduated scheme could be easily provided against. But probably the higher officers, who would be the commission’s immediate advisers, were more concerned to raise difficulties than to solve them. It is these higher, officers, bv the way, whose recommendations largely control the matter of annual increments, in which tho rank and file are apt to be ignored, and their salaries have shown a tendency to rise out of all proportion. . . ~ On the question ot superannuation the commission’s report is a counsel of despair—to continue grants from the punlie purse simplv because the superannuation fund is bankrupt. Surely it is time to stop the drift. Sir Joseph Ward, the father of the scheme, declared, not in a time of depression, but at the very height of the boom, that it might bo necessary to hand back contributions and scrap the whole business. It is understood about £70,000 was paid over to the superannuation fund last year, and these rams on tlie consolidated fund have been made necessary bv an attempt to pay allowances in excess of the recipients’ contributions. When one reads of officers drawing up to £26 per week in superannuation the financial plight of the politicians ceases to be pathetic. . Civil Servants, like the Labour I ar’.s arc up in arms against salary reductions, without any clear idea as to whore salaries of any kind are lo come from. Ol the large army of Civil Servants, over 50.000 it. is stated, it would be safe to sav that only a minute fraction has been dispensed with, ami these only temporary men. 1 cannot see that even so-called perinaiienl employees have a prescriptive right lo appointments when the work of departments, with the notable exception of the taxation offices, is practically nt. a standstill.—l am, etc., HARD FACTS. April K