Established 1866. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Thursday, June 26, 1902. NEW ZEALAND TELEGRAPHISTS FOR SOUTH AFRICA.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 147, 26 June 1902, Page 2

Established 1866. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Thursday, June 26, 1902. NEW ZEALAND TELEGRAPHISTS FOR SOUTH AFRICA.

We are not surprised to learn, on the authority of a Wellington journal, that many of our expert telegraphists are likely to migrate to South Africa to take up official positions in the same capacity in the recently annexed territories. Already some twenty or more men have sent in their resignations, and ib is more than probable that others will follow the example set bjT their fellow officers. The chief attraction is the greatly higher salaries which telegraphists receive in South Africa. Telegraphists who here receive from £120 to £220 (this latter amount was, in one instance, only reached after a service of twenty-two years duration) are offered in South Africa salaries ranging from £300 to £500. Post office clerks of the first-class receive £320 with increases of £20 up to £420 ; second class clerks £200 with £15 increases up to £300; and postmen £168 with increases of £12 to £228. All these salaries, as the officers of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph services are only too well aware, are very substantially higher than those prevailing here. It is true the cost of. living on the Rand is considerably higher than in in New Zealand, but this, in course of time, is certain to be materially reduced, whilst in many districts men can live almost as cheaply as they can here. We believe that this is a better country than South Africa in which to make a permanent home, but high salaries naturally possess attractions for young men, and no doubt many young New Zealanders will be tempted thereby. There is no reason, however, to assume that the efficiency of our colonial post and telegraph service will bo impaired, for there are numbers of well-trained cadets, to whom the de parture of some of the senior officers would afford chances of promotion. Our chief reason for drawing attention to this subject is that a'; several meetings of the Farmers' Union complaints have been made thab our New Zealand civil servants are overpaid, and that a system of drastic retrenchment should be inaugurated by the Government. As a matter of fact, although one or two minor branches of the service may have been over-manned, we believe the civil servants of this colony are paid much lower salaries than those prevail ing in the various Australian States or in Canada, and the facts we have quoted above strengthen this opinion considerably.