STATE SERVICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21037, 23 November 1931, Page 8

STATE SERVICES.

A warning that economies must be effected by curtailment of services was given by the Minister of Finance in the supplementary Budget. Unless the public is prepared to support these steps," said Mr. Stewart, " it will have to submit to higher taxation or allow a heavier drift to take place in our finances." The association between State services,' the growth of the public service and the derangement of public finance is emphasised in the annual report of the Public Service Commissioner. He surveys the growth of the service in the last 17 years and declares that it has been " primarily due to the ever-increasing burden of additional services rendered necessary by fresh legislation passed from year to year " and claims that any curtailment of expenditure is not wholly a matter of organisation, since the public service is Efficiently run, "but is entirely a question of Government policy." Whether the staffing of the departments under the control of the commissioner and of other departments outside his jurisdiction is as thoroughly economical and efficient as he claims may be doubted, but there is no question that the expansion of staffs in State employment has for many years constituted "an ever-increasing burden " which has now passed the limits of the taxpayers' endurance. The enthusiasm with which State services have been multiplied and extended has contributed to v the actual growth: it has also set an example for the lavish staffing of all departments. Retrenchment of personnel is difficult and painful and cannot be pursued without consideration of individual hardship. Hence, the need to reject all proposals for new adventures in State enterprise and gradually but systematically to curtail the exuberant activities which have been developed.