CIVIL SERVICE CUTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1931, Page 4

CIVIL SERVICE CUTS.

Speaking generally the manner in which the Civil Service has accepted the reductions in salary made necessary by the economic depression has been admirable. Amon* the rank and file the marwin in household budgets i.s never very Targe, and a ten per cent, cut is a diminution in income that is felt severely. But when compared with the rank and file of wage-earners in private employment, where employer and wageearner alike must face'whatever blasts of fortune affect their particular industry, the lot of the civil servant is one of peace if not of plenty. Compared with that of the struggling settler it is even more attractive, and it must be remembered that if civil servants’ salaries have been reduced ten per cent, so has the cost of living so far as essentials are concerned. It is disappointinw therefore to learn that so large a branch of public service organisations as the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association should take the view that in some way or another its members have been unjustly treated. The association claims that civil servants are carrying more than a fair share of the country’s burden, and it protests at what it calls “an organised attempt by chambers of commerce to bring down salaries to an even lower scale.” Such an attitude is most disquieting to the public. It is obvious that if civil servants feel they have been less justly treated than wage-earners in private employment there is nothing to prevent them leaving the poorer service for a better one. But the whole matter .seems to betoken a wilful disregard of conditions as they are. It is difficult to conceive of a body of intelligent employees assuming that the commercial community is making an attack upon its rights and privileges for the purposes of private gain. Cost of production, costs of administration, and casts of living must be reduced, or the Dominion will default. Did that catastrophe arrive the lot of the civil servant would be parlous indeed. It is the bounden duty of commercial, agricultural and administrative authorities to explore every avenue where economies may be effected.- Commercial leaders are not suggesting economies with the hope of increasing profits. They know they are essential if industry is to be kept alive and it is their duty to tell the community as plainly as possible what the position is and what effort is required. It is to be hoped that upon reflection the Post and Telegraph Officers’ Association will cease protesting and do its best to assist in whatever economies may be found imperative.