PUBLIC SERVICE OPINION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 27 September 1918, Page 5

PUBLIC SERVICE OPINION.

The diminishing value of the poundnote is the reason for a demand, on th© part of the Public Service Journal for ''a measure, of relief" to Civil Servants. The journal says:—"The man in the street does not care a continental whether the public servant has one, two, or thre© meals a day. He is looking after himself and getting what he wants. Trie manufacturer claps another 10 or 20 per cent, on prices, the wholesaler sees,that and goes 5 or 10 per cent, better; the retailer sees both with his 10 or 20 per cent, better, all of wMch is piled on to the consumer. The latter, if a private employee, demands higher pay—that or strike—and gets the pay > which, satisfies him for the time being. But the public servant, ret strained by the spirit of loyalty, and true to the best traditions of the service, may ask in vain, just because the \ powers that control his destiny are aware of Ms sentiments. With fche purchasing power of the sovereign somewhere in the region of 13s 3d the offer of a bonus of £15 per annum to a married man on a salary of £140 is little short of irony, and it is not consoling to that unfortunate to know that the same amount of bonus is being paid to the £315 man. The association has asked that the minimum wage for married men shall be increased to £156 per annum, the standard minimum in the Commonwealth of Australia at the present time. It was announced in the public press that the request,of the. association had been granted, but the announcement was afterwards contradicjri cd. When the book of revelations is | printed the reason for this change or" ! mind will no doubt be made oteiar. In j the meantime we take, leave to say that . the present minimum is a disgrace to th.c Government of a prosperous country claiming to be progressive."