PUBLIC SERVICE SALARIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17497, 15 June 1920, Page 4

PUBLIC SERVICE SALARIES.

The statement made by Mr. Massey yesterday should satisfy the whole body of public servants that the Government fully appreciates tho justice of their claims for increases in salaries and wages to meet tho increase in the cost of living. He has promised a revision of salaries " consistent with the cost of living," to date from April 1, and the appointment of a departmental board to doviso an equitablo scheme of consequential adjustments. It is obviously impossible for Mr. Massey to go further than this, without embarrassing the tribunals ivestigating the claims of the railwaymen, as he told a deputation from the Post and Telegraph Association last month. Evidently tho association's conference had forgotten his warning that there would bo a delay in announcing tho Government's decision, and, while its impatience was natural, there was really no need for such indignation as it expressed. Tho Government has not only to decide what is due to over 25,000 public servants—and this number does not .include the school teachers, who are also to benefit from the policy now announced— also to determine from what source and by what means the aggregate additional cost is to be recovered. The latter is the most difficult part of the problem confronting tho Government, for tho public not only expects that the claims of the State's servants will be fairly considered, but that in passing the cost on to the community care will be taken to avoid measures creating greater injuries than those they are designed to remedy. It is gratifying to have Mr. Massey's acknowledgment thatsthe whole cost is not chargeable against taxation revenue. ■•. That anomalous suggestion was made in a Treasury memorandum a few weeks ago, but Mr. Massey has not accepted it, preferring the sounder doctrine that revenue-earning departments such as the Railways and the Post Office must pay their own . salaries. He therefore forecasts, an increase in the charges for services rendered .by these departments, and evidently contemplates not only the maintenance of war-rates of taxation, but possibly some increases. Neither taxpayers nor those who contribute only indirectly can cavil at the proposals of the Government; they will still insist that while higher salaries are necessary to ease the burdens of the public servant, greater vigilance must be exercised to ensure economy jn the expenditure of public money. The greater the cost of necessary services, the less can the coun try afford to pay for extravagance.