COMEDY OF FINANCE

Evening Star, Issue 21081, 19 April 1932, Page 10

COMEDY OF FINANCE

HEALTH OFFICER'S SALARY The Marlborough' Express ’■ states that au amusing financial comedy is being enacted around the payment of the salary of tho local health inspector, who is in the position of having five “ bosses ’]—•the Health Department, the Marlborough and Awatere County Council, and the Blenheim and Picton Borough Councils, all of whom contribute in a fixed proportion to his salary, the Health Department acting in a controlling capacity, collecting the contributions and paying the officer 1m cheque. The principal actors in the comedy that is proceeding are the department and the Marlborough County Council. . , In act I. the department, in accordance with the Government s economy policy, reduced the inspector’s salary by 10 per cent., but it did not pass on any part of the saving to the local bodies, whose quotas remained the same, with the consequence that the department benefited richly from the “ cut —or at least hoped to do so. Act 11. witnessed a revolt on the part of the Marlborough County Council and the Blenheim Borough, who quietly deducted 10 per cent, before sending to the department their contributions towards the salary. As tho curtain falls on tho second act distant rumblings are heard from the direction of Wellington, gradually swelling into a howl as the euiagcd department discovers how it is being checkmated. This, however, suddenly breaks into a burst of Machiavellian laughter as the curtain rises on act 111. This discloses the reason for tho department’s crafty glcefulness, for instructions are being issued to the Treasury to withhold from certain goldfields re. venue payable to the County Council an amount of £4 8s arbitrarily deducted from the salary quota by the loan body. It is now the council s turn to raise a howl against the department’s highraindedness, but the Direc-tor-General just smiles a superior smile, secure in the knowledge of tho legality of his action. As with downcast mien the County Council, stalks gravely from the stage, a mischievous smile begins to lighten tho gloomy features. The plot is thickening, and this month’s instalment of the serial concludes as the clause for the County Council’s furtive amusement stands revealed. Another instalment of salary is now'due, and it is intended to deduct this time an amount of £3 16s, thus actting one back on the department again, for thero is now no county money that tho department can attack through tho Treasury. Members of the County Council were i of the opinion that the council s?as m

the right when the clerk (Mr A. J. Maclainel put the facts before them, and it was agreed that he continue the game of checkmate anti negotiate with the department in an amicable sort of way, the 10 per cent, deduction on the proporti- i o. salary for tho last two quarters to bo made in the meantime.