THE COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 51, 29 August 1917, Page 3

THE COST OF LIVING

VIEWS OF STATE SERVANTS.

Several rermta_ having reference to the high cost of .living and'also to salaries were passed by the Conference of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association yesterday. They were: —

"This conference endorses the action of tho Grand Council of State Servants in regard to the efforts made towards re-, during the high cost of living, and asks it to again impress upon the Government the necessity for making a practical effort to fix such maximum prices for household commodities as will effectually eliminate undue profits in the production, and marketing of the same. If the difficulties of doing this are held to be insurmountable then salaries and wages should be periodically raised to made 'real' wages ruling prior to the war, and at the present time equal." :■)

"This conference is of the opinion that' the Government should be asked to exerciso the powers conferred on it by Section 24 of the Public Service Act, a-nd grant a pro rata increase in salary to cover the decreased spending power of the sovereign since the commencement of the war."

"That salaries should bo paid fort-nig-htlj' so as to assist the lower-paid officers to take _ fullest advantage of the benefits of paying cash for their requirements." . ■ ■ •

"This conference urges that the war bonus already provided for by the Minister of Finance should be allocated on a sliding scale; the number of the family of t,ho_ officer concerned taken into consideration, while the bonus allotted to the single officers drawing email salaries should ba increased."