Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1947. Talking Of A Public Service Cut

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1947, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1947. Talking Of A Public Service Cut

IN view of the attempt to make the future of the Public Service a live political issue, it seems necessary to repeat what we said on a recent occasion, that the complaint is not against public servants as a class but against the system that has made necessary such a substantial increase in their number. It is undeniable that there are State departments, particularly those giving essential service, which are working short-handed. But position is itself a direct outcome of the growth of Socialism which has resulted in the creation of a great number of extra tasks for civil servants and at the same time has diminished the labour resources from which they themselves could obtain help.

In present conditions, it is not possible to reduce the size of the service, except insofar as a few small but unnecessary sections of mushroom growth are concerned. There has certainly been no talk of a cut in the essential departments; rather is it planned to strengthen them by diverting staff from the superfluous sections and at the same time taking such steps as to. ensure that any large-scale expansion will not be necessary. What has to be realised is that Socialism must result in substantial additions to the State payroll; the only method of curbing that undesirable growth is, of course, to eliminate the need for it. It is not so much a question of present numbers as the size to which the service will grow. It is obvious that should any Government- pursue a policy of imposing more controls and restrictions —Socialism requires that —and blundering into more and more branches of industi’y, then the staff of the Public Service would have to be still further increased. Already the number of civil servants at 9.9,152 (an increase from 56,194 in 1936) is only 18,000 short of the total number of persons engaged in factory production (117,864), and is two-thirds of the number engaged in farming pursuits (154,000). These figures are taken from the report of the Population Committee, a body set up by the Government. «But for the Government’s legislation, no great .increase of staffs would have been required. This much can be said without qualification: that the present administration is the most expensive Nexv Zealand has ever experienced. The taxpayers and the consumers suffer. And xvlio is not taxpayer • Who is not a consumer? Are not public servants themselves vitally affected by the expansion of the service in which they are employed? The inadequacy of the present production of the country is undoubtedly a prime cause of the rise in the cost of living—and the declining value of money—which affects the pockets of the public servants as much as it does all other sections .of the community. Actually the complaint of the great body of public servants—that great body of essential workers—should be directed not against the critics of the growth of the service, but against the system that has given rise to the need for expanding it—a system that has added both to their own staffing, cqst-01-liv-ing and supply difficulties.