THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1932. THE PUBLIC SERVICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21117, 26 February 1932, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1932. THE PUBLIC SERVICES.

When answering a deputation from die combined Public Service organisations the Prime Minister spoke with an uncompromising directness which is in itself a reflection of the times. The day for pleasant generalising is gone. The national outlook forces those who are responsible for the immediate future to deal with plain facts, no matter how difficult these things are to say, how unpalatable to hear. This the Prime Minister did. He made neither threats nor promises, but he told his hearers what the alternatives were if further savings had to be made in the cost of the public services. f These arc wage reductions or wholesale dismissals. There was no doubt the Public Service was overstaffed, said Mr. Forbes. This has often been insisted by commentators, but not before has it been so directly admitted officially. It was overstaffed, in fact, before the pinch of hard times began to be felt. The statistics illustrating the growth in personnel, compared with the increase in population, left no other conclusion to be drawn. Now that lack of funds has led to the curtailment of services, a process which, it is to be feared, must go further yet, the overstaffing is certain to be accentuated. These conditions grow up almost unnoticed in prosperous times. They are part of the overhead cost of government which tends to increase because nobody exercises that unceasing vigilance which is forced on private enterprise by the pressure of competition. Another kind of pressure has now developed, and costs must come down. It resolves itself into a choice between dismissals and what is, in effect, a process of rationing. The apprehensions of the Public Service arc easily understood, as is the dismay with which its members regard a possible further reduction of income. Several organisations, therefore, have addressed to the Prime Minister a memorandum, of which a condensed version was published yesterday, containing their suggestions covering measures to meet the financial emergency. The actual substance of the proposals has been commented upon already. But the summarised version of the statement did not do full justice to its tone. The public servants represented, it stated, fully realised the economic stress prevailing, and in stating their case against wage reductions, desired to be helpful and constructive. Their aim was to provide a broad solution of presentday difficulties, rather than narrow sectional demands *, their status as citizens was put before that as public servants. This spirit is an admirable one, and should not be forgotten in considering the actual proposals. They, unfortunately, lacked the essence of practicability in that among other things they did not adequately recognise the immediate and pressing nature of the Government's task. As the Prime. Minister said yesterday, there must be further reductions in expenditure if the Government is to, avoid a crisis in which the Exchequer will be empty,, when there will be 110 funds to pay the State service at all, even on a reduced scale. This .is not a fanciful picture. It actually happened in New South Wales when, through prolonged resistance to the demand for economy, the State could not pay salaries until the Commonwealth came to the rescue. There is no Commonwealth Government in New Zealand to arrange temporary financial accommodation in such a time of need. Fortunately the national finances have not yet reached so desperate a pass as those of New South Wales. They must never be cillowed to do so. But it should not be lost on the public servants that if by criminal hesitation and irresolution that situation came to pass,, they would suffer first and worst from the bankruptcy of-the State.

The outstanding difficulty is that expansion of services, and consequently of staffs, in prosperous times creates vested interests, the true weight of which is not realised until adversity appears. The term may seem startling, but it is quite appropriate, and its use is borne out by observations in the report of the May Committee, which contained the economy proposals on which the drastic British scheme'of retrenchment was based. The individual who receives an appointment regards it as a permanency which nothing must be allowed .to disturb. This attitude is strengthened by the fact that pension rights arc involved in the continuance of employment. Any Government, therefore, is restrained by the moral force ol this feeling, by the strength behind the attitude, from shortening staff in the way that private enterprise can do, and however reluctantly, has done, in many instances, because of the present depression. Salary reductions have been imposed as the smaller hardship, not only in New Zealand but in Great Britain, in Australia and in other countries. In New Zealand similar reductions have been suffered by thousands in private employ who have not the same security of tenure in their positions as the public servants have enjoyed up to Ihe present—the permanent employees, that is. Now they have been asked the direct question, which would be preferable in the event of further savings becoming imperative, salary and wage reductions or dismissals. They arc not alternatives anyone willingly suggests, but it would be folly to ignore the possibility that they may have to be faced. The Prime Minister has not said a further cut will be proposed ; he has not said it will not. He has simply and frankly given the only alternative should further saving in the cost of the maintenance of the services become imperative. He has also indicated the disastrous result that could follow failure to heed the call for such saving if the need were proved. It is an unpalatable but realistic forecast of future possibilities.