CITY OFFICERS’ SALARIES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 108, 31 January 1934, Page 10

CITY OFFICERS’ SALARIES

State Pay Comparisons RESTORATION OF CUTS STRONGLY OPPOSED Opposition to any attempt to restore, at present, the reductions in the salaries of City Corporation officers was expressed at a recent meeting of the executive of the Wellington Ratepayers’ Association. “It may not be generally known,” states the association in a statement to the Press, “that the salaries paid to corporation officers are considerably higher than salaries paid to heads of Government departments and other responsibly placed officers In Government and civil services. As a matter of fact, the city solicitor has a higher salary than the solicitor-general: the town clerk has a higher salary than the public trustee, and a higher salary than the civil service commissioner; the city engineer has a higher salary than the engineer-in-chief (who is also under-secretary, marine engineer and chairman of the Main Highways Board) ; the city valuer is paid a higher salary than the Valuer-General of the Dominion: the city treasurer and ratecollector is paid more than the Commissioner of Taxes; the director of reserves is paid more money by the City Council out of rates than the Commissioner of. Police gets out of the Consolidated Revenue; while the manager of tramways and buses draws out of rates nearly as much as the general manager of railways out of railway revenue. “It is the considered conviction of the Wellington Ratepayers’ Association that the time is quite inopportune for any councillor fo consider seriously the restoration of cuts to City Council officers; the association knows that several officers in the ratepayers’ service would rattier their salaries wore not discussed at tlie present juncture. Should any revision of salaries be undertaken, this association considers that such revision should be in the direction of bringing the salaries paid city officials into eonforpilty with what is adequate under present conditions, and toward a lightening of the already unendurable burdens ratsjayers have now to carry.”