THE CIVIL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 149, 27 June 1930, Page 10

THE CIVIL SERVICE

HEAVY CUT URGED

BURDEN OF TAXATION

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHBISTCHUKCH, This Day.

An appeal for the drastic reduction in the- staff of the Public Service in New Zealand was made by Mr. H. D. Acland in his presidential address before the Christchurch Citizens' Association.

"The new Government has intimated that further taxation is inevitable," said Mr. Acland. "Why cannot a drastic reduction be made in the Public Service of the country? Tho Departments have grown out of all proportion to the population, and the necessity of further taxation means less spending power for individuals. Thus we get less work offering and moro unemployment. The. unemployment x so caused may not be sudden, but it will be real. I myself know of a large number of cases where the special land tax 'increase of last session resulted in a reduction in the number of men employed on farmsj Let us hope that the new Government is sufficiently strong to demand of its masters, the heads of the Departments in the public offices in Wellington, a reduction in the staffing and expenditure. It would appear, however, that with democracy thero- goes hand in hand the new despotism of bureaucracy, which is far more despotic than that of the medieval kings."