FINANCIAL STATEMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11251, 1 July 1922, Page 7

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

IN MONTH OR SIS ‘WEEKS. Mr Mitchell: Can’t you leave the lower-paid men out of it? Mr Massey : But I could not get the money I want. Mr Wilford: Leave the cut out up to *6320 a year. Mr Massey: I oould not get the money required: He referred to the fact that in some cases the cost of materials for the railways, the post and telegraphs, public works, etc., had gone up 300 per cent, since the war; and canvas had gone up over 300 per cent. He was preparing the Financial Statement, but did not expect to bo able to deliver it for another month or six weeks; and ho hoped then to be able to give figures for railway and other expenditure in a way that they had never been given before. In spite of what had been said about the discontent in the Public Service, he thought that the Government had treated its servants particularly well; and he believed that they themselves would admit it. The bonuses amounted to an average of £95 over the whole of the service, and the Government did not want to take more than it oould help of it. A SECOND CUT TO BE MADE. Mr Mitchell: You will make a second cut? Mr Massey; So far as I am able to judge, there will be a cut; but 1 believe that the decrease in the cost of living will not allow me, without being unfair, to make a cut such as was made in January last. If the drop in the cost of living will not allow of a full cut, I am not going to ask the House to make a full cut. Mr Wilford: Would it not bo better to read that report and let the debate stand over till half-past 7? Mr Massey: I want to study the report. Compared with other countries, he maintained our public servants had been treated very well indeed. The concessions to the railwaymen were valued at £150,00G a '‘SUPERANNUATION BURDEN'.” Then there was superannuation, the burden of which was simply enormous, and it was going ahead more than they ever dreamt <af. He believed he would have to ask the House to do something in connection with it this session. Ho doubted whether the country could carry the burden very much longer. He did not mean to -wipe it out altogether, but he believed the Act would have to be amended.. We c<*uld not go on and risk anything like a crisis even so far as superannuation was concerned. In 1914 thj average salary of officers in the Post nnd Telegraph Department exclusive of messenger boys was ,£148.49: for the present year it was .£235.56: while the average salary of officers of 21 years and over *-21. 22. and 23—was £267 13s, women as well as men. Similar increases had taken place all through the service, every concession given to one branch being given to all. So far as the imprest was concerned, he 6aid, he did not think there was anything unusual in it, though there hrid been, very heavy expenditure on public works. Manv more men were employed In the Public Works Department now than ever before—somethin* like 7000, owing largely to the relief works for the unemployed. It was less than last year's imprest, though it was a big one. He had set apart some time ago the sum of £250,000 for the employment of the onrmployed, and the whole of that wofild be Teqnirpd. Many thousands of men today out of work in the country districts, were willing to work for 8? a week and their tucker. It was a very bad state of affairs, and he honed it would come to an end. that a time would come when there would he employment for every* body, "EXCEEDINGLY SUSPICIOUS.” Mr I. McCombs (Lyttelton) spoke of the references which had been made to the food groups, and remarked that the food groups did not cover the whole budget of the cost of living. Mr Massey remarked that tho President of the Arbitration Court had asked for his statement to be sent back to him for him to have another look over it. Ho expected that the statement would come back that day (yesterday), perhaps in amended form. Mr Massey “said he had gone on the food groups all n’ong. Mr McCombs: That is the only way in which you can iockey the civil servants out of their just dues. Mr McCombs said he would like to know why the Prime Minister had suppressed the figures received for the President of the Court. Did he consider <-be iudge needed inslruction P If so tho Government had misused its position. The circumstances were exceedingly suspicious. Mr Massey : The report was with tho judge at the time if wap asked for. Mr McCombs quoted figures which, he said, indicated that the finances of the country were not in so desperate a ettite that the Government was justified, in making a raid on t.hq. pockety of the civil servants, or resorting to the mean subterfuge nf circulating wrong information respecting the cost of living. "TWO PRIME MINISTERS.” Mr E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) paid that there were evidently two Prime Ministers—the one who, when addressing farmers* meetings, wn* in moot optimistic mood, and the one who, in -speakimr on tlm present ouofitian. OOSI-

tended that the State could not afford I to pay fair wage® to its employees. He concluded by prophesying that ultimately the workers would take over the Government and run ill© country better than it wafl run now. (.Laughter.) Mir F. N. Bartrani (Grey Lynn) protested against any further cut being made in i Civil Service salaries. j Mr M. J. Savage (Auckland West) sup- i ported Mr Holland’s amendment, and , eaid that he regarded, the proposed cut as a close tax.