RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20604, 1 July 1930, Page 14

RETRENCHMENT.

gii-j—Civil servants would probably tell your correspondent, " Finance," that they arc not responsible for unemployment:. and that they cannot see why their salaries, already ' raided twice, should a f, ai::i be reduced to save the pockets ot_ the wealthy. Sine; thi war the advance in wages of the industrial workers has far exceeded thai granted to civil servants, whose remuneration should, therefore, be increased rather than decreased. Brains must be paid for; otherwise brains will surely see what can bo done to change the system in order 1:0 get a fair portion of the national earnings "Finance" says ho would not likti to say that every Government employee is overpaid, but a very large number are. Very well, let him produce a list of those who are "overpaid" after comparing their positions with similar ones under local bodies. There is no likelihood of the Arbitration Court being übolisned. The raising c£ prices necessitated the raising of wages. One of the causes of abnormal unemployment \v;is the immigration policy minus ;inv* provision for ahsorning the immigrants on the land. Another was the absence for many years of a land policy to satisfy the growing land hunger of the population. ' This resulted in largely inciva.sinn the amount of surplus dependant- labour and the competition for jobs, while preventing thai: enormous natural increase in production which would otherwise have taken place. Sura Cciqce.