NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17784, 18 May 1921, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PUBLIC SERVICE SALARIES. An estimate of the amount that would be involved in paying to public servants in Australia the amounts recommended by the Basic Wage Commission was given by Mr. Skewes, representing the Publio Service Commissioner, during the hearing, by the Public Service Arbitrator (Mr. Atlee Hunt) of a claim by the Commonwealth Public Service Associations and 12 other Public Service Associations for a basic wage of £5 16s 6d. Mr. Skewes explained that it was considered by the Ministry that the adoption of a 5s rate as child endowment was fair and reasonable, with regard to the actual average number of children in the family of the average public servant. Returns from various departments showed that there were 2615 married officers, who were estimated to form one-fourth of the total number of married officers in the whole of the service. These 2615 married men had, between them 3246 children under 14 years. To grant the claim of the Public Service Associations would involve an expenditure of £3,500,000. From this amount had to be deducted £1,000,000 which was already being paid as the cost of living allowances. There were 8000 temporary employees, with an average increase of £100 each. Thev would receive an additional £80.000. The granting of the new claim would • involve payment of a wages bill of £7,750,000, as against the present bill of £4,250,000. The Basic Wage Commission appeared to be desirous of creating a race of supermen and superwomen, even at the cost of many millions of pounds sterling, and at a possible risk of dislocating the industries of the Commonwealth.

NEW SOUTH WALES MEMORIAL. A movement has been set on foot for the erection of a cenotaph as a national war memorial by the women of New South W ales. The organisers have been assured by the Government that t.here will be no difficulty in finding a site. In the meantime various lovers of art connected with this patriotic object have unofficially approved an elaborate and beautiful design, modelled by Miss Theo. Cowan, the wellknown Australian sculptress. The monument itself will be 36ft,. long Bind 25ft. high, all the figures being twice life-siap. Five ideas are typified in the group which forms the cenotaph—Destiny, Birth, Love. Death, and Immortality. The Angel of Immortality, standing with outstretched wings, and the flaming torch of life raised in her hand, dominates the group beneath. Destiny, portrayed as the hooded figure of a woman, bends over the new-born infant on her lap, while at her knee stands a boy, typifying Love. At her feet is the form of a dying Anzac, the last faint smile of youth upon his features as hs sinks to repose in the arms of Death, whose fleshless face is almost invisible beneath its shroud. The thread of life, broadening as it streams to the end, binds together all the details of the conception as in a frame, and continues up wards in beautiful curves to the hand of the flying Angel of Immortality. The light she raises on high will be represented by an electric lamp, shaped like a torch of ancient days, and in this way the group below will be revealed in the darkness of night. On the two pilasters on either side are the words, "To Our Glorious Dead," and "For the National Life."

SAYING THE MOTHERS. Attention was recently drawn to the apparently high rate of maternal mortality in New Zealand. Writing recently in the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr. A. Watson Munro says :—After the basic sciences of anatomy and physiology, midwifery is the most important in the entire medical curriculum, whether regarded from the civic or the professional point of view. The importance of the life and health of our " best sort of immigrant, the baby," is incontestable, and does not need discussion. Few women in .the community may hope to escape the dangers of child-bearing, and every medical practitioner is continually being called to the heavy responsibility of managing its emergencies, which are, as doctors know too well, of frequent occurrence and often of terrible importance, and fraught with tragic consequences. A young country doctor, for instance,' far removed from the counsel and support of any colleague, might find himself suddenly brought face to face with a catastrophe in which two lives, of mother and child, are involved at orjee. The salary of the teacher* of midwifery at Sydney University amounts but to the beggarly sum of £140 per yearit speaks volumes. At a recent gathering of medical men it was scathingly remarked, Jin the course of a discussion on infant mortality, that the country seems to care more for the good health of its cattle than of its human babes and mothers. There is no chair of midwifery in this the third largest medical seminary in the Empire, but there is a chair of veterinary science, designed to conserve the well-being of live stock. Any one who has engaged in this branch of medical practice must marvel at the indifference not only of the university authorities but of the general publicv-more especially the women of the State, otherwise so wide awake on _ sociological matters—on this vital question. Here, surely is a reform worthy to be tackled by all associations of patriotic women.

ALLOWANCES FOR M.P.'S. I An announcement was recently made m the House of Commons by Mr. Austen Chamberlain that the Government intended to submit a proposal making members' salaries free of income tax and also providing first-class railway fares between ondon and their constituencies and homes. Some time ago a Select Committee recommended that no change be made ui the allowance of £400 a year, but that nrst-class railway travelling between London and the member's constituency and free postage be allowed. Eleven M-P.'s were examined by the committee, as well as representatives of the PaymasterT?, 1 ' Post office > and Transport Ministry The Labour members pZ ticular y d welt on the hardships necessitated by the present rate of pay. Mr W Adamson said his first-class railway pass to West Fife cost hin, £186 a year without extras, snch as a sleeping car which would cost another £2 a week. Hotel expenses and other expenses of that character he put at £160 a year and postage, without telegrams, at £15. Donaw' ty ( £ls ) brought the total to i-576. He suggested that the allowance should be raised to £800 free of income-tax, and that M.P.'s should bo given an open railway pass, as calls came from all over the country. Mr. Adamson said there had been little difficulty m securing Labour candidates for Parliament, but he added:—" To a working man with no knowledge of the way money goe s when living in London and travelling about the country, as a member of Parliament has to do, £400 a year may seem a large sum, but when he begins to try to divide that up he very quicklv realises where he is." Mr. Dan Irvine Labour M.P. for Burnley, said that when elected to Parliament he gave up his situation m Burnley, and now his only source of income, except for a very small amount came frorn his salary or allowance as a member of Parliament. If th.e allowance was regarded as a salary, he added, th e House of Commons was the meanest public body in practically the whole world. Mr. M. T. Simm, member for Wallsend, was asked whether he would make it a penal offence for a member to go to a constituency and say, "I am not one of those who either draw a salary or draw an allowance." He' replied: " Yes, I should prosecute him as a cad." ;