PROSPERITY'S RETURN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 146, 23 June 1931, Page 10

PROSPERITY'S RETURN

THE LESSON OF HISTORY ' PREVIOUS SLUMP RECALLED REMEDIES OF THE ’EIGHTIES There is nothing new under the sun —uot even a.u economic depression—and those disposed to regard with pessimism the difficulties of to-day may take heart of grace from the fact that New Zealand has always recovered completely from such setbacks, even when, as now, the depression has been worldwide and relatively just as severe, states the New Zealand Herald. It is almost a truism that history repeats itself (states the N.Z. Herald). More remarkable still is i history’s habit of repeating itself at stated intervals. For instance, there is a familiar ring about certain state-1 ments in the newspaper files of 50 years ago, when Now Zealand was experiencing a phase of economic depression in many respects resembling the problem facing the country to-day. “We have had very dull times, and many a struggling settlor has had no income whatever.” complained a correspondent in a letter to the Herald in June, 1881. “The salaried civil servant has quietly been eating the cheap produce of the starving fanner. It is to be presumed the men were making both ends meet before the reduction, and, taking their pittances at £lOO. the loss of £lO spread over the whole of 12 months is all they will suffer. ’ ’ “Cuts” in Civil Service The reference to the reduction in Civil Service salaries is interesting fo just over half a century ago a Royal Commission was set up to inquire into the constitution and organisation of the service, aud to consider by what mean* the cost of it might be reduced with out impairing its efficiency. While the commission recommended a reduction of not less than 12| per cent, in railway wages and salaries, the crux of the report, dealing generally with Civil Service economies, was contained in the following passage: — “We cannot recommend any mere automatic scale of reduction in salaries in order to bring the cost, of the service within the means of the colony,

but a total reorganisation that will rt tain all the necessary power and skill, and put all the main work of the ser vice into the hands of those willing to do it at its market value. Such an arrangement, if unflinchingly and impartially carried out, would greatly decrease the present cost of the service, and at the same time add to its discipline and its efficiency.” Around this report, incidentally, waged a fierce political controversy, but ultimately it was decided that all Civil Service salaries and wages should be reduced by 10 per cent., the ratio adopt cd this year to meet a similar period of difficulty. Overhauling the Railways Fifty years ago Civil Service salaries cost New Zealand £1,000,000 a year, so that the 10 per cent, “cut” represented an economy of £lOO,OOO. However, in half a century New Zealand ’ has so developed that it is estimated 1 the 10 per cent, reduction enforced fror. April 1 last will amount to £l.391,697. which is considerably more than the whole of the Civil Service wages bill of 50 years ago. In several other respects the economies instituted to meet the needs of the times 50 years ago have been paralleled in recent experience. With slight variation the following summary of Parliament’s work half a century ago might, serve to describe the recent programme for overhauling national ex penditure:—“Owing to the cessation of borrowing and the limited amount of money which could be devoted to public works, it became necessary to con sider the programme, to drop some of the railways which it had been proposed. to construct, and indefinitely to postpone others. “It ‘was also expedient and necessary to arrange that the money still at the disposal of the colony for public works should be husbanded so that there should be no collapse from ’he cessation of employment. With these objects it was agreed to appoint a commission which should go over the whole colony, take evidence as to the railway lines which had been proposed, and make recommendations. They were also to report upon the important subject of railway management, as the receipts from the railways have, an many cases, been unsatisfactory.” History Repeats Itself. Parenthetically, it may be remarked that once again the receipts from the railways have been “unsatisfactory,” to use a mild expression, and this week brought the announcement of the personnel of the Railways Board, belatedly set up as a result of one of the recommendations made by another Royal Commission which investigated the working railways last year. The problem of railways under construction has not been approached in exactly _ho mannei adopted 50 years ago, but the Government has on its own initiative announced the abandonment of certain projects. Curiously enough, .it was from the South Island that tho loudest protests came 50 years ago when the cessation of various railway works was recommended by tho commission. Then tnc principal bone of contention, apparently was the Otago Central railway, which the commission said should never have been commenced. To-day a somewhat similar controversy rages about the South Island Main Trunk project. After referring to the many objec-

tions raised against various phases of th* economy programme of 1880-81, me Herald said: “But with all this feeling, and notwithstanding its strong manifestation in the House, there is a general determination in the colony io support the Government (then headed by Sir John Hall) in bringing the finances and general expenditure into a healthy condition. Powers of Quick Recovery. “Throughout the colony the expenditure on. the working of tho railways is to be greatly curtailed, which will materially increase the percentage of the returns; almost every department of the public service has been greatly curtailed; a number of offices has been abolished; and there has ’ een a general reduction in the pay of the Civil Service. This means a great deal in a country where the Government carries on extensive public works, and conducts the whole railway and telegraphic services.” Subsequent events showed that, in addition to salary reductions, a certain measure of retrenchment was carried out in Government departments, a procedure which has also been practised during these days of later difficulties. Although New Zealand, from a settlement point of view is more than twice as old as she was in 1881, this confident prediction then made may justifiably be repeated without loss of emphasis half a century later: “We have no doubt that the recovery of the country from the depression under which it lias suffered will be rapid. A new country ha; powers in this way hardly to be appreciated by residents in old settled countries, where every avenue of enterpjdse has long been occupied.” Now Zealand, which has yet to celebrate the centenary of her colonisation, is still “a new country,” and the lesson of her past history is that happy days will soor bo here again.