Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1934. GOVERNMENT “OVERHEADS.”

Western Star, 10 April 1934, Page 2

Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1934. GOVERNMENT “OVERHEADS.”

Taxation per head of population remains high in New Zealand. Unlike Britain and Australia, whose levels per head approached, ours, this country has been told by its rulers that there is no immediate prospect of a reduction of the burden. Already in Australia some relief has been given and more yet is promised despite the recent Government'subsidising of wheat .growing as long as world prices for wheat and flour remain so low as to be unpayable • toall but the most favurably placed. The already known cardinal points of the British Government’s financial results for the year which ended only six days ago have given rise to a confident feeling that taxation in Britain will be eased by the forthcoming Budget—unless the Chancellor of the Exchequer is quixotic enough to resume payment in full on the war debt to America. The New Zealand taxpayer has been repeatedly told that retrenchment in the Public Service has gone as far as it possibly can, and that any further dismissals would seriously * impair efficiency and do far more harm than good. Yet one person in every fifteen on the earning population of New Zealand (those between the ages of fourteen and sixty-four years) is a public servant. This is at the rate of one public servant for every person Engaged in factory production and one for every two persons engaged in farming pursuits, j The number of persons paid salaries or wages by general and local government is over 63,000 —equal to the whole population of Invercargill, Napier, and New Plymouth combined. Particulars are no longer given in the Year Book of the total number of State and local body employees, but a search of thp latest official records available, instituted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce, has resulted in the fact that 37.845 are employed in Government Departments, 12,603 by

local bodies, 4,937 by hospital boards, 7838 school teachero, while judges and magistrates number 42—a total with other minor departments of 63,378. The leaders .contend , that the irreducible minimum, represented by these figures, has been reached. It is a well known fact that Ministers have to rely on their information from departmental boards. They are certainly not expected to know everything, but they should in times like these try to find out about the staffing of these departments. There are other retentions which taxpayers are at a loss to understand. Because of stagnant or dull business, is in part slow of recovery through excessive taxation, many, private concerns have had to shorten staffs to a point which occupies the full time of those retained. At certain times of the year clerical work is heavily augmented by the requirements of the Government Statistician. , The making up of returns for the income tax commissioner is onerous enough, but to ascertain and fill in all the details of one’s business which the Government Statistician is inquisitive about is a formidable task if conscientiously . performed. , Certain statistical tables covering the whole dominion have to be compiled in Wellington for incorporation in the annual departmental report, and those in the various lines of business concerned have to furnish the data. The details involved are sometimes intricate to , a degree, and many of the questions to be answered on the form supplied absolutely necessitate a good deal of guesswork. All this departmental curiosity defeats its own purpose, v for under the circumstances it is not at all surprising to be told confidentially by heads or secretaries or accountants of innumerable firms • that. the compilation of such returns is not conscientiously done. - Why (they ask) should they go to infinite pains to find out things about their own business which, when ascertained, would be of not the slightest value to themselves in the conduct or analysis of their business, even if it be one in which the most rigorous and/ exhaustive system of costing has always been applied? To take a much simpler case, one has only to ask any wool grower about the. accuracy of the ■annual returns of sheepowners. In nine cases out.of ,ten. he will, smile broadly, and perhaps he will say that, if everyone fills in his returns as he and his neighbours do, the statistics are only ‘‘near enough.” New Zealand is still very much over-governed, and the taxpayer is talking about possible changes of system if not of party. „