FROM THE PUBLIC STANDPOINT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 162, 10 June 1929, Page 6

FROM THE PUBLIC STANDPOINT.

But there is the taxpayer’s viewpoint to be also considered. According to a Government return, the number of permanent officers employed under the Public Service Act (excluding administrative officers and lNative school teachers) and post and telegraph officers had increased from 10,456 as at April Ist, 1914, to 15,983 on the same date in 1928; the total annual salaries paid had risen from £1,662,222 to £4,052,546 and the average salary from £158.973 to £253.554. These increases naturally involve increased subsidies to the superannuation fund, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that, from their increased salaries, these public servants should make some increased payments to the superannuation fund created for their benefit—a benefit which is not shared by the public who have to meet the increased cost of the subsidies. The figures quoted do not cover either the teachers’ salaries or the salaries and wages paid by the railways. Since their inception the payments into the three superannuation funds by the State up to March 31, 1928, have been as follow: STATE SUBSIDIES. £ Public Service 1,417,000 Teachers 724,900 Railways .< ... 1,327,500 £3,469,400 On the two former funds Sir Joseph Ward discloses a deficit of £1,600,000, and “the railways superannuation fund is to be investigated on top of that.” These amounts do not, however, represent the full amount paid, as a further sum of approximately £300,000 has been paid during the eight years ended 31st March, 1928, by way of “cost of living” bonuses “to super-annuitants, widows and children under the public service, railways and teachers’ superannuation funds and Civil Service Act, 1908, and to other persons in receipt of retiring allowances.” The setting up of the superannuation funds is one of those humane measures which is naturally looked for at the hands of any self respecting government doing justice to its employees, and the Reform Government contributed by far the greater amount of the subsidies paid into the three funds by the State; but it would seem to be necessary, in view of the heavy taxation to which the country is already subjected, to recast the method of apportioning the State subsidies and the employees’ contributions, if the taxpayer is to be afforded any relief from the State burden.