The Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1922. CIVIL SERVANTS’ PROTEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16642, 26 January 1922, Page 6

The Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1922. CIVIL SERVANTS’ PROTEST.

At the meeting of Civil Servants last evening a resolution was passed pro testing against the salary reductions which are proposed by the Government. Tt was to be expected that the meeting would b© unanimously opposed to any •eduction whatever. The speakers had many reasons to advance why the Public Servants should retain their present scale of salaries, and why the public should bo more heavily taxed in order to pay them. The meeting was full of admiration for the Labour members of Parliament, who also oppose any reduction. and object to the surrender of any portion of the £SOO paid to them by a grateful if somewhat impecunious country. The suggestion that th© Public Servants should make common cause with th© Labour Party and the Alliance of Labour was received with approval. As cno of the speakers confessed, if affiliation meant the raising of wages, it was worth serious consideration. It is perhaps just as well that tho speakers were so entirely candid, and declined to allow themselves to he swayed by political principles or prejudices. The ideal thov put forward was that the votes of th© Public Servants should go to th© politicians who would make their views suit th© Public Service’s ideas of .salaries, quite irrespective of any other considerations. The meeting made no constructive suggestion, beyond the one that taxation should be increased ’in order to maintain salaries at their present level. The fact that the expense of the Pqbli© Services has g*nwn into an unbearable burden was ignored. The strongest grounds exist why there should be a comprehensive review of the staffing of Departments. Tt must be admitted that the Government is to blame for the situation. Departments have been increased and staffs enlarged with an absolutely prodigal recklessness. Administrative costs have been piled up regardless of expense, and the day of reckoning was bound to come. It is quite appropriate that the Government which contributed so largely to the muddle should be compelled to find the remedy. Retrenchment is never popular with the retrenched, hut the Public Servants will have to realise that tho country cannot pay tho bill which lliev would like to present. The cost of the services must be lowered, and it is quite possible that even more drastic steps than thone in contemplation will have to he taken. Our railways, for instance, cannot be allowed to go on losing £4OOO per day. Fares and freights are at their maximum, with the result that trade is at its minimum, A policy is wanted which will secure the maximum of trade nt ■ reasonable rate, but the Reform Government seems to he incapable of finding it. Some of the Departments, we observe, are to be amalrramnted. and we hope that some will be wiped out. The officials who f.rmise themselves and harass other people by issuing passports, for instance. might be given a rest without impairing tho stability of th© British Empire.