THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 1926. PUBLIC OFFICIALS’ SALARIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19903, 24 September 1926, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 1926. PUBLIC OFFICIALS’ SALARIES.

The resignation of a member of the commercial staff of the Railways Department has been bluntly explained by the consideration that the department cannot hope to retain the services of men in its commercial branch at salaries that compare unfavourably with those paid by business firms to their commercial representatives. A position in the public service possesses many advantages and offers many attractions. Once it has been obtained by a person he enjoys a security that is not shared with him by any person who is engaged in any other form of employment. The cold blasts of business adversity do not affect him. A roar for retrenchment may sweep across the land at intervals of half a century, more or less, and at such a time it may be necessary to weed out of over-staffed departments those who are least efficient, but except for an accident of this kind it is

only through actual misconduct on his part that a public servant is deprived of bis employment. The scale of salaries in the lower grades of the service is adequate and is not greatly, if at all, inferior to what is paid in business houses for work of equal value, and the public servant has the satisfaction oi knowing that, when the time comes for his retirement, he will be the recipient for the rest of his life of a superannuation allowance that will at least provide him with necessaries and that may be sufficient to afford him a comfortable existence. The salaries, however, that are paid in the higher grades of the service compare unfavourably with those that are secured by persons occupying positions of responsibility in the service of companies and business firms. Within the past few weeks the resignation of a very efficient public officer, who is at the head of his department, was notified. This officer is leaving the Government service to accept a position at a salary which is said to be more than double chat drawn by him at the present time. The resignation that is announced this week is the second within eight mouths from the service of the Railways Department. This department is concerned with the control of a business with a capitalisation of nearly 50 millions, but there are only about half a dozen of its officers whose salaries are £IOOO or upwards per annum. There are officers in other departments whose services are retauied by the Government merely because of their sense of loyalty to their department and to the State. The present is not a time at which any increase in the cost of the public service can be contemplated without a good deal of concern, but the Government will have to recognise sooner or later that ir. will have to pay to those of its officers, upon whom great responsibilities rest, salaries more nearly equal to the salaries that are paid in commercial houses to men entrusted with duties that call for the exercise of a high degree of judgment.