RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20605, 2 July 1930, Page 14

RETRENCHMENT.

Sir, —The above subject is unfortunately very much in evidence just now, and our Government is looking for a method to square national accounts. In the process much hardship is going to be felt by the community, and the great difficulty is going to be the equitable apportionment of the necessary sacrifice. Not a great deal can be saved bv reducing numerically the Civil Service,* and the farming community cannot in fairness bo called upon for further contributions iu view of the low prices existing for all their products. Great hardship would ba suffered in view of the scarcity of employment if the-State dismissed a lot of its employees—it would in fact be ridiculous to dismiss men from one branch and then re-employ them on unemployment schemes. But the annual State expenditure must be reduced, and the" ono method left is to make a straight-out cut iu wages and salaries of all State employees, including Ministers and M.P.'s. Every other section ot' the community has already suffered si reduction iu earnings. and those-whose earnings have been fixed arbitrarily by Parliament and the ■Arbitration Court should now bo called upon to make a sacrifice. A cut of 10 per cent, would materially assist to pub our railways on their feet and square national accounts generally. There is but one means of promoting increased production, both primary and secondary, and that is in reduced costs, and the one means of reducing costs is to reduce wages. Many of our politicians must realise i his fact. We now want a few courageous ones in come out into the open and say so. With a general reduction in wages there is u. possibility of bringing into profit much of our now waste land, and with a levelling down of wages an inducement to get. out of tho labour market will bo created for those who arc capable and' willing. to go on tho land, and every worker wbo settles on the land will create employment- for at least ono other, iu addition to the job lie vacates. It will, of course, bo stated that a reduction in wages means reducing tho "standard of living," but this does not follow. Lower wages would -reduce the cost of production and distribution and institute an immediate reduction in tho "cost of living" and an increase in employment as a result of increased development would stimulate demand for all classes of goods, reducing tho demands on the State for relief, and put tho unemployed on an even footing with the employed. Retrench. .