WAGES CUT

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11451, 27 February 1931, Page 7

WAGES CUT

PROTEST BY LOCAL PUBLIC SERVANTS. AN APPEAL TO REASON. A large and representative .meeting of the various organisations of Public Servants in Gisborne .was held in tlie Liberty Hall on Wednesday. jMr. John Jackson presiding. Tho subject of discussion was the recent pronouncement of tho Prime Minister, wherein, it was proposed to reduce by 10 per cent, tho wages and sa larics of all . those employed by tho State.

The whole question was' fully apd vigorously debated, it being quickly realised that an. appeal to reason at the moment, allegedly enthroned as* tlffi ' Parliament of the country, was tho only rational resort for tho time being. If men who constituted tho Ugliest tribunal iii the land were gifted 1 "WitfT.'a solisb iff fair .play' add enriched with wisdom born from tile study of economics in its true perspective of. labor as applied to the natural resources of the country in all its various ramifications, then there would be no fear of the ultimate moral adjustment of tho incidonco of taxation. y

At the 'moment, ; however, it was obviously evident to the meeting that the. proposed sweeping reductions in salaries, unless it was postulated with authoritative assurance that the commitments in the cost of living would he relatively reduced, would unjustly penalise the servants of the State. Tliis being so, public servants, bearing in mind that when, cuts were similarly made in 1922 realised,. from bitter experience that, unless Parliamentarians could be impressed with tliq moral right of .the impost of tax on incomes acquired through investments which had been increased by over £7,€00,000 in the. seven years immediately preceding 1929, then their case was hopeless. However, it was said that there w*as a silver lining to every cloud, so 'public servants might find, in the fact that the Prime Minister had said ifc. was not .a party question, but one which Parliament as a whole would adjudicate upon. In view of thjs statement,' .it was essential that public servants should bestir themselves and' inriko sure-that every step should ho taken to see the-case for tho service should be properly and truly represented before the House not with the object of Wanting to shirk its fair proportion .of a monetary sacrifice that was needed to balanco the Budget': during tlie,coining year and-any other loan years that might follow. •With this Object in view, fin active committee' was ' set up, Constituting two representatives of various associations of Public Servants in Gisborne, to work in co-operation with tho- combined representative committee .at Wellington. *’ : * " ■ \' A vote of thanks to tlic chair concluded a pleasant but ... determined gathering. ' -< *