Western Star And WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1922. ADJUSTMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

Western Star, 14 February 1922, Page 2

Western Star And WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1922. ADJUSTMENT OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

Such is the title of an Act which came into operation on the ,30th. January. Its operat&n is limited to' salaries 'which are paid out of the Consolidated Fund. The necessity for the Act arose from the fact that whereas in the year 1914 the total expenditure from that fund was £14,6X0,000. to-day it is £28,000,000. Not only has expenditure increased, but sources of revenue are drying up. and every one recognises that if the money is noli there, people cannot be paid. Hence the economy legislation, iii.e methods employed for adjuring the expenditure, however, are open to question, for the simple reason that they do not appear to be hased on the great and just principle of equality 'of sacrifice. The lower paid servants have got to cany the heaviest burden, whereas /the higher salaries should have had the bigger cut, and the smaller the lower one, because, while the three foods groups show a fall- in price, clothing, boots andi shoes, ■''and house rent are (still high. Increases in salary were based oif this cost of living, and in 1316 bonuses were given, taking effect iroin the let -April of that year, married men receiving £ls, and sino-le men £7 10/-. The same mans were paid in 1917. In 1918 these bonuses were doubled to £3O and £ls, respectively, making an aggregate of £45 ,per annum, to married) and half t!mt 'sum to single. In 1019 the Public Service was reclassified by the Commissioners, and they recommended and it was agreed to' that instead of paying these amounts as bonuses, they should be added toUhe salaries as permanent increases-. In 1920 jv further straightout increase of £SO was L'iven. This it is proposed to continue, but to discontinue the £45 which had been made permanent in JO 1 !?. The position as it" affects each rate of salary from £{22o to over £1250 will therefore be m follows: £220 £4O o r 18 por eeut. £350 '. £45 or 13 per cent. . £IOO £-'5 or 11 P cr CG,IL £.-)C0 £-15 or 9 per cent. £6OO £.30 or 8 per cent. c'-QO _ £SO or 7 per cent. £goo £s° or 6 P or c<Mll, £BOO-£9OO \ 7 per cent. £?)00-£l000 S per cent. £IOOO-£1250 9"per cent, . Over £1250 3° iP er cent -

Some twenty years ago members of Parliament received £2OO per annum. An increase was made by way of a "rant of £lO, known at the time as flie "1340 grab," and about 1003 the honorarium was fixed by the Statute at £3OO. This ws-a the figure up to '1920. In 1919 the expiring Parliament carried a resolution unanimously that membeV honoraria should hf> £IOO. When, the new Parliament came in in 1920, instead of givinsr effect to that resolution, they increased their honoraria to £soo.and members nf the Laudative. Councils to £3o'o. These increases are. not too much, it being long, recognised that muffihete were underpaid. But the point is that the. increase was too much at a time when the needl for r.cenomy was patent to everybody in the Dominion, and that in making lartre increases in expenditure immediately after a great v-var the lessons of history were being flouted. Milliliters, of whom there are thirteen, as against eight in 1914, also re-

ceived substantial increases, the total I increases in honoraria of both Housen . being approximately £23,000. Having i given themselves over a 50 por cent, j increase, under the Adjustment of! Public Expenditure Act they will! suffer only a 10 .per cent, reduction forced upon a man with a salary \of £220. One need not who i'k the better able to stand the reduction. Members -should have reduced their honorarium by 20 per cent.. tntis bringing it to the lU'.mi stated in the motion passed by the Parliament of 1919 on the eve of its expiration, if only in recognition of the truism that example is better than precept. This flat rate of 10. per cent applies also to the higher-paid officers, many of whom have had most isubdantial increases in their salaries since 1914, Tho*p increases ran from £OSO to £IOOO, £750 to £1250, £075 to £IOSO. £BOO to £I2OO, £750 to £IOSO, £BSO to £I2OO just to cite a few cases at random. As in the caise of members of Parliament so in that of departmental heads, the reductions of their salaries' upon, a percentage basiis is relatively very much lighter than thosp which have been made in the salaries of officers in the lower grades of the service.