THE ELECTION AND AFTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 5, 5 December 1931, Page 6

THE ELECTION AND AFTER.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l read with interest your article on the general election, hope you will give me some space to express my views. I stood in fr of “The Standard” on the night of the election and was surprised to see how calm and undemonstrative the crowd was. Plainly I could see their action was one of suspended judgment. tv amounted to this: We’ll give them J chance to “produce the goods, and if they succeed good and well; if nor our decision will be different next time. “To produce the goods needs strong action. The Government will have to get to work quickly, for New Zealand overhead expenses are topheavy, and cannot with safety continue. I have before me a list (taken from official Government books) showing the salaries paid to heads of departments in 1915-16 and 1930-31-will be noted that in 1910-16 prices generally for wool, butter, “JT 1 cheese, etc., were much better than they were in 1930-31, consequently the country is not able to pay the same high salaries, but will it be believed, and are your readers aware, that with much less money, they have to pay. tar higher salaries. I mention no names, ana no prejudice is felt, and no unkindness meant. It is simply a statement ot bare facts. One or two examples may be given: The head of the Agricultural Department received in lJlo--16 £675 a year, in 1931, he received £1250; the Land and Survey, then £BSO. now £1250; Public Works, then £IOOO now £2000; P. and Telegraph, then £IOOO, now £1300; Treasury, then £875, now £1450; Auditor and C. General, then £IOOO, now £1300; and so on, through the whole Public Service. Some items call tor special mention. For example. sir Thomas Wilford got £SOO to tube him Home, and Sir Janies Parr got £SOO to bring him out to New Zealand. Sir Thomas Wilford’s salary is £2OOO a year Sir T. Wilford’s house allowance is £IOOO a year, and his travelling expenses £4OO. The High Commissioner’s office cost New Zealand £14,450 in 1915-16; now it costs £43,898, and has much less to do than in the former period. Control Boards which cost much have relieved the High Commissioner’s office of several duties. I only give these figures as indications of what is general. Please let me confirm what I have just written, by quoting from the Bulletin issued by. the Department ot Economics of Canterbury College: Taxation in New Zealand in 1914 was £5 5s 2d per head of the population; in 1930 it was £l3 3s /d. lwxation for local bodies in 1914 was £1 18s lOd per head; in 1930 it was' £4 6s lid. Do you wonder, sir, that we have unemployment? Take one more example, viz., that of State expenditure: Debt service in 1913-14 was £2,880,000, the amount in 1929-30 was £10,697,000; education in 1913-14, was £1,207,000, in 192930, was £3.218,000; departmental in 1913-14, was £2,539,000, in 1929-30, was £4,755,000. Do you think, and won’t your readers agree, we have got into a terrible mess, and don’t you think the Government must get to work to put things right as quickly as possible ? I am not going to trouble you with more figures, but the total votes cast for Coalition and Labour, published this morning, prove that the electors have acted under what is known as suspended judgment. If “the goods are not produced,” anything may happen in the political world, but, it is to be hoped, we shall hear less talk, and that infinitely stronger action may be promptly taken. The lower grades, most of whom have to help to support their parents, and are very young, might be left alone, but in other ways, the whole financial arrangements of the country should be recast. —I am, etc., Wm. THOMSON, Palmerston North, December stli, 1931.