THE LABOUR PARTY AND ECONOMY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4806, 8 November 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LABOUR PARTY AND ECONOMY

‘■'Labour” writes to the editor of the “Now Zealand Times”:—l cannot think that you were exactly right in your explanation of the alliance of the Civil servants of Victoria and the Labour party at the elections. The Labour party is hardly likely to be so foolish as to stand in the way of true economy. What it was indignant about was the injustice of the whole affair. Civil servants have_ less chance than any other profession or business of running the country into debt. It is tho taxpayer who unites himself with other taxpayers to form deputations, who ask for‘'amounts cf money for this district and for that, and‘it is the politician who grants these requests for the sake of votes, and sometimes disregards the necessities of the State. The Civil servant is precluded from speaking at public meetings, and from writing to newspapers, or in any way influencing public expenditure. It is always a mark of bad statesmanship when politicians who run the country into expense and debt find no other way out 'than to attack the: pockets of the Civil servants. It is the fault or the politician that men who cannot do their work and who are not wanted are foisted on the Civil Service. The heads -of departments never ask for loafers or for men who are' only fit to stick envelopes. . j.r they have asked for a man in thqir departments, they invariably recommend one fit for the position. ‘On the other hand, in Victoria,' as in other countries, the politicians have filled the public service to overflowing with their own idle followers. If the Ministry asked that tho economy should be exercised in the direction of removing these useless excrescences which politicians have foisted, upon them, that would bo legitimate economy, and it would have boon an economy that the Labour party would certainly have supported the Government in. It was the unjust system proposed by the Government that irritated the Labour party, viz., that there should be an all-round reduction of the pay of the men already in, not a discharge of the idlers—so that men who had been in the service for years, who were the back-bone ot the Civil Service, found that they had to suffer by tho all-round reduction, as well as those who were improperly in the service. ■ ~ ■ • I think this explains the reason why there was an alliance between tne Civil servants and the Labour party. The election has proved that they are not in sympathy with the masses of the people. They carried-the towns, but the country voters, always half a generation behind in thought,, are as yet unable to appreciate the difference between a clumsy reduction of the pay of all, Civil servants and a cutting , on of its improper members, so they voted for an all-round reduction, which, treats good and bad alike. .