REDUCED INCOMES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 4

REDUCED INCOMES.

To the Editor of the “ Tlmaru Herald.” Sir—Mr McCombs, M,P., in moving his amendment to the Address-in-Reply, stated that because the Government cannot compel the reducton of incomes tfrom business, professions, or other services, it was unfair to cut down the incomes paid to State servants. It is a cunning move on his part to imply that no such reduction will take place or has occurred in the incomes of persons outside the public service. No one probably knows better than Mr McCombs and his party that reductions in salaries and earnings in these occupations have already occurred. Professional men, tradesmen, and others in every line of business have had to submit to a probably larger reduction in their incomes than is contemplated by the Government’s 10 per cent cut, while those dependent on primary production have seen their profits out right out. No one knows better than Mr McCombs that these reductions outside the public services are automatic, because the earning power of the professions, trades and business houses are not fixed by law, or protected from the general economic depression as are the salaries of the State employees. It is common knowledge that business houses have had to face heavy losses in revenue and to be able to carry on have had either to reduce their staffs or the rate of salaries paid. This has already been done, and was necessitated to meet the fall in revenue with which they were faced. It was that or shut down, in many instances. The Government is in exactly the same position, and is on# proposing to do what practically every one else has already done. We do not like to see wages and salaries reduced, and no one does so just for the sake of doing it. But we do emphatically protest against the outcry of alleged sectional sacrifice by men who know perfectly well that the same, and in many cases a much greater sacrifice, has already been made by other sections of the community who are not in the sheltered position occupied by public servants.

Whether the method of the cut as proposed is equitable or not is certainly open to discussion, but that does not justify the obvious untruth that people outside the public service are not suffering similar if not greater reductions. It would not be difficult for the Government to get full evidence of this, and we urge them to do so to show the true position. In fact, if the Socialist Labour Party is genuine in its demand for fair treatment all round, it will encourage such an investigation, which should result in their taking up the same attitude as the Federal Labour Party in Australia, which, according to the cabled news of March 14th, “have decided upon further reductions in Public Service wages and salaries.—We are. etc.,

N.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE. 20th March, 1931.