Wage concerns

THE record from day to day offers a convincing proof of the fact that the public servants of the dominion are widely dissatisfied with the standard of their remuneration in these times. The question of the wages of the railwaymen is at the present moment the subject of discussion between their respective organisations and the Government. Throughout the country officials in the Post and Telegraph service are moving to secure an increase of salaries, and the primary school teachers are everywhere urging that they should

receive payment at rates equivalent in purchasing power to those paid to them prior to the war. It is a perplexing problem that the Government is being called upon to face in respect of these claims on the part of its employees.

It is impossible to deny that there is a good deal of cogency in the arguments which are being advanced on behalf of these representative branches of the public service.

Bonuses and increments have not served to counteract wholly the increased cost of living, and in respect of their difficulty in making ends meet, a large proportion of members of the public service are in a position in which they are entitled to sympathy.

It is to be remembered, however, that the conditions which thus affect the employees of the State affect in like manner and in the same degree all classes in the community.

The question arises in these extreme circumstances whether, and to what extent, relief can be equitably given to one section of the public if hardship is, as a consequence, to be inflicted upon another section.