PUBLIC SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 89, 12 October 1937, Page 10

PUBLIC SERVICE

CONFERENCE OPENS

REGRADING PROBLEM

RESTORING SALARIES

Questions, affecting the welfare of the Public Service throughout the Dominion were discussed today and are to be the subject of further deliberations tomorrow and the next day by the twenty-fourth annual conference of the New Zealand Public Service Association. The official opening was performed this morning by the Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason). The Public Service Commissioners, Messrs. T. Mark and J. H. Boyes, were also present.

The president, Mr. T. Pound, referred to some of the immediate objects of the association, and thanked the Government for what it had already done for the Public Service.

The regrading of the service, which was at present under way, was some years overdue, said Mr. Pound. At one stage the association was hopeful that the Government would make provision for an increase in the salaries scale, , the association having asked for a reversion to the 1919 scale. Members of the association were pleased indeed to read in the Press the remarks of the Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department made to a meeting of Post and Telegraph employees at Lower Hutt in the presence of a Minister of the Grown. Mr. MacNamara said then that he hoped the reclassification would prove at least as satisfactory as the 1919 regrading. That made the association members optimistic, but they were less optimistic when they read the reply of the Minister of Railways ' to the Railway Officers' Institute, and perhaps less optimistic still when they themselves approached the Public Service Commissioners on the matter. The association knew that the Public Service Commissioners were making a very thorough job of the regrading proposals on this occasion. "ONLY HALF THE TRUTH." It was true, continued Mr.- Pound, that the Government had restored the salary cuts of the civil Servants, but it seemed to him that that was saying only half the truth, because although nominally the salaries. were the same now as before the depression, the civil servants were not receiving the same money as formerly. First, there was deducted the eightpence in the pound employment tax, and second, the increase in the income tax had bit the civil servants probably'as hard as, or harder than, any other class in the community. The increase in the income tax affected the middle-salaried class, in which category the civil servants fell. Third, not the least. important factor was the increase in the cost of living. It was true that the cost of living had not risen to that point over pre-war standard that it did in 1919, but it lpoked as if it would rise to that point. "I am not mentioning these matters by way of complaint, but on the other hand I am not really expressing an opinion," said Mr. Pound. "They are cold, hard facts and as such make us hopeful that as far as the reclassification is concerned, we may get, if not the 1919 scale, at least something equal to it." Mr. Pound welcomed the two Public Service Commissioners, whose presence he took .-as.a. compliment to the association. THANKS FROM ATTORNEY- ~ GENERAL. After apologising for the absence of the Prime Minister, Mr. Mason congratulated the association on its continued success and its increasing membership, which he understood was now about 90 per cent, of the Civil Service membership. It was proper, he said, for a member of the Government to acknowledge the support which the Civil Service rendered to the Government. The Public Service existed to implement the policy of the Government, and the responsibility for the administration of all. phases of policy fell upon the permanent heads and their officers. In many administrative matters the decision of the Minister was needed, but the permanent heads were expected to give advice to the Ministers, even on matters of policy. Ministers 'had always paid tributes to the loyalty of their heads of Departments. It had been truly said that Governments came and Governments went, but the Civil Service existed to give continuity of administration.. The Prime Minister had already indicated to the association, said Mr. Mason, his support of the policy of non-political control of the Government services, and it was not necessary to enlarge upon that. In New Zealand the traditions of the services were as high as in the corresponding services in the Motherland. The Government had not been unmindful of the importance of the Public Service, said Mr. Mason, and it was a pleasure to him on behalf of the Government to acknowledge the remarks of the president It was heartening to realise that the Civil Service appreciated what it had obtained, even though there was still much to be done. One of the matters requiring attention, continued the Minister, was the effect of the housing shortage on some civil servants. In some isolated places where there was no demand for houses civil servants found it almost impossible to find accommodation, for, being subject to transfer, they could not afford the risk of buying property. The association's representations on behalf of officers so affected had received a very sympathetic ■ hearing from the Prime Minister, and would not be overlooked when the difficulties facing the Housing Department were overcome. SUPERANNUATION. The association had been promised, said the Minister, that the Public Ser- ( vice superannuation scheme would re-' ceive attention as soon as the major national scheme was disposed of. and the association had the assurance that its funds would not be merged in the national scheme. Partial contributions had been made to stabilise the Public Service fund, and last year the Government appropriated £200,000 to the fund.' "The Government wholeheartedly welcomes the existence of the association and the holding of such conferences," said Mr. Mason. "It is the Government's • desire to see the association strong and representative. I 1 say that without any reservation what- : ever. As proof of that attitude, yßu may be assured that the Government will give the most earnest and careful ■ consideration to any representations or ] observations that arise out of this con- 1 ference." < .1■ ' ]