Evening star., 1931-06-18
CHE Evening Post, wellington
Opposition to the public service
aAlarY cuts Is being worked I'D


Opposition to the public service
salary cuts Is being worked up
with catch phrases. Some OF
these have . specious appear
ance. but are in truth misleading. One
Of the most misleading Is the statement
that the public servants, who are one
ninth Of the workers Of the Dominion,
are being asked to find one-third OF
the deficiency. This appears correct
to those whose reasoning is limited to
q sum in simple arithmetic, that FL ,5O0,-
600 is A third Of E4,50O, 900. It Is mis-
leading because E4,500.0 900 Is not the
whole national loss. 1t Is merely the
prospective shortage in the government
budget. The national loss Of income
has not been calculated. Mr.. Coates
said the prices realized by primary pro-
ducers were down by 10000. 600. As
this loss does not stop there cit In
wolves further losses by all who supply
goods and services for the producers)
It may be assumed that the loss Of ma
tional income Is between 100000, 900 and
f40, 1000 900. The people Of the country
as q whole must bear this. The reduc-
tion in national income Is reflected In
fall of government revenue, and the
public servants are asked to take theil
share in meeting that part of the Joss
AS has been shown, it is not theS~hole
loss. other parts of the national loss
are being borne by private businesses
and the employers and proprietors o.
these businesses are carrying the load
In many instances the private employees
are in a worse position than the public
servants They have not had the
alternative Of 10 per cent cut. They
have lost their employment, because pri-
vate employers cannot do as the gov.
~.ak and -fntTG
from employees and two-thirds from the
general public. Private employers have
no taxable public on whom they may
place almost two-thirds of their de-
ficiency.
Worker. Expecting Aid
From Employer, Scored.
The Bulletin, Sydney.-One Of
the dull men Of one Of the duller caoi-
nets told q meeting at East Sydney the
other day that the workingman who
expected any help from the employer
was dead from the chin up. Probably
the man didn't believe word OF 1t; In
political life sincerity has been SC
habitualIy sacrificed that it hardly ex-
lists any more. STILL whether the man
believed 1t or not Is OF little conse-
uuence; what are the facts?
The condition Of the worker has been
enormously improved during the past
100 wears; and the improvement has
been progressive. During this period the
workers unions have come into being
and have been increasingly militant;
and the easy conclusion has been drawn
that the improvement has been due tt
the arrival Of labor unions and the pro-
gressive improvement to their increas-
ing militancy.
conditions Of so years ago. The Aus
tralian agricultural laborer at that TIME
received IS cents day in ordinary
times, and q dollar at harvest. The
! hours we're from till and as otter
from 6 till Z. And the farmer, the EN-.
ployer, was, as a rule, so poor that Il
was a struggle for him to pay ever
the miserable wage Of the period. From
this fact the obvious conclusion Is thai
the farmer did not pay more because HI
couldn't, and o thousand trade union.
would not have improved the farm
laborer's condition to any extent wortf
mentioning.
In manufacturing industry the i'm
provements in wages and conditions
| have been much more marked than the!
| have been in agriculture; and in al
branches of mining they have beer
very striking. The history of Broker
| Hill-the district represented by the dul
member of 3 dull cabinet before men
tioned--is typical Of that Of most indus
trial-metal fields. At the outset tn
only ore which 1t paid to put through
the smelters averaged 80 per cent leat
surface deposits were worked out. The