COST OF DEPARTMENTS

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 70, 24 April 1929, Page 6

COST OF DEPARTMENTS

n Tlie tigures (jUuled ut tlie last meeting of tlie Napier Chamber of Coinmerce, dealing with increasedj taxalion as intiueBeed by tlie num- ! ber of civil servants 011 tlie national | pav roll, of eourse call for serious I I cunsideration. At tlie same time j i tlie siiuation requires lo be 00111- ! jirebensively oxaniined. Take, for ' exanijde tlie pbrase "civil .ser- ! Yiinl , as used in Ihe debate by 1 Ihe Cbamber. Tbese inelude rail- ' ivuv servanls (some 10,ODO of ItbeiiT), jiostal employees. Ihe administralion of tbe Jamds Department, and all persons employed by 1 be I'liblie Works Department. It was eontemplated tbat sinee 1922 tlie number of "civil servants" — all State employees — bad increased from 4:> per tbousand of tbe population to 01 per tbousand. Assum- ; ing tbe figures to be accurate, tben it lias to be pointed out tbat unemployment, altributed to tbe increased burdcn due to the growing number of State employees, bas itself been one of tbe causes of an increase in their numbers. Tbe Governmont, very properly — a generalisafion ivliich applies to liolb tbe late and the present administrations — bas instituted relief works on a large scale. Tbese involve supervision, and supervision means state employees. In considering tbe inerease in tbe number of State employees since 1922, it requires to be pointed out that during that period the number of railway servants bas increased by some tbree tbousand. Proporiional increases bave taken place in tbe Postal and Teiegrapbie De]iartment, and in tbe Publie Works Department. Tbe Chamber apparentlv endorsed tbe statement tbat it talces all ive receive from our combined exporfs of avoo! and cbeese to meet tbe wages bill of our "civil service,"- a statement whieh could only be true if tbat ivages bill stood for a loss. As a matter of fact tbe Postal and Telegrayib Department retnrn-s a profit to tbe State, and altbough tbis cannot be said comprebensively of tbe Eailways Department, tbe net revenue per train mile run is 4 per eent upon expenditure, ivhicb inclndes all wages. It is sometimes said tbat it takes our total reeeipts from dairy ing experts to pav for our imports of motor vebicles, petrol, ete., and it is so -said as to imply tbat tbe transaction means a . dead loss. Tbis is not so. At least some of tbe expenditure is economic and profitable, and so with State ventures into industrv. If the views of tbe Chamber are to be accepted as a manifesto condemning the entry of ihe State into industrial and commereial enterprise, all but an insignificant minoritv witb a Communistic bias will readily agree. Yet even tben, not tbe most bigoted and unseasonablo Individualist would venture to suggest tbat tbe Postal and Teiegrapbie Department is not a' proper — one might also say an inevitable — function of: tbe State. And, altbough a proposal tbat tbe State sbould sell tbe railwavs and so get rid of wbatever liabilitv tbey involve would doublless meet witb some support, tbe country generally would scout tbe suggestion. To get down to a practical issue we bave to face tbe fact tbat neitber tbis nor any other country can do without ivhat is cnlled a civil service. Tbe only useful question j ber-e is whether tbe wages bill of tbe civil service — quite a little army of State employees — stands for a loss to be met out of taxalion or rcprescnts money earncd. Presumably tbe most debatable section of tbe civil service is tlie clcrical. Every business, private or State, bas to liave its bookkeeping side. Unless it can be sbown tbat what may be called State bookkeeping , is over-manned or over-paid, tben we bave no rigbt to describe even tbe elerical di vision of tbe civil service as standing for a loss to bc made good out of taxation. If tbe work it does requires to be done, and if it is tolerablv well done, its remuneration is earned. With tbe otbet' sections of tbe so-ealled "civil service" — railway and postal and publie works employees — tbe position is clearer. Tbey eithor earn tbe wages paid tbem or tbey do not. If tbe latter, there are cormption and mai practice to be rooted out. If the former, it is merely beating ihe air to talk of a loss which equals tbe value of our combined cxports of wool and cbeese. Tf tbe country is not getting value for its wages bill for State employees investigation and reform are called for. Take tbe railwavs, again, for example. If they were sold to a syndicate tbat syndicate could not run tbem without paying a wages bill. Tbe employees would bave ceased to be "civil servants, but would still have to be paid.