EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS
THE Two WoacEs'rEas
Mr. C. H. D. Crimes, late chairman of the Church
Immigration Welfare Society for W. Australia, writes : " I read. with great pleasure the letter on the two Worcesters--:
as Mity the day before I had written to the Victoria League on the subject of linldng up places in England and our Dominions which have the same name. Your correspondent has put it excellently when he says that the normal human mind revolts at generalities. It is almost impossible
to hope to get people at home to be keenly concerned with the whole of our Empire, and lectures, &c., on it do as a matter of fact leave them largely untouched. But if we
could get, say, the people of HOghenden in England to link up with Hughenden in Queensland the problem is simpler.
Yet once create a real link and how much knowledge of each other's country may flow along this channel. To know something about the conditions of life in one township in Australia is to know a good deal about the life there generally, and once one starts on a particular line we all know how all sorts of bits of information which we should have otherwise passed by unnoticed are assimilated."
ECONOMY IN THE CIVIL SERVICE Mr. A. COOPER KEY (Johannesburg) writes: " Early in the year Sir Almeric FitzRoy suggested in the Spectator that the Government might save large sums by advancing the retiring age of civil servants. Mr. H. C. Havenga, the Union Minister of Finance, recently made some remarks distinctly pertinent to this matter. Assuming that members of the Transvaal administration and pension fund retired as to seventy-five per cent. at the earliest age 55, and only twenty-five would remain until they were sixty, an earlier actuarial report brought out the deficiency at £25,000 and a later one at £56,000 (without, however, taking into account increased salaries). This by way of preliminary explanation. The point in relation to Sir Almeric's opinion is contained in the following extract from the Minister's Budget speech :—
' The retiring age during the last five years has probably been unduly low owing to the process of reorganization and retrenchment which has been going on, and it is hoped that in future the average of retirement may be substantially increased. The retiring age is a very important factor. It is calculated that if all the members retired at 55 the liability on the fund would be £450,000 more than it would be if they all retired at 60, so that when public servants retire at a generally earlier age it has a very important bearing on the fund.. "
M. Blackwell : Why not keep them on to 60 T' The Minister of Finance : Generally, now, if a public servant is fit he is kept on ; his period is generally extended year by year. It is hoped that in other respects as well the valuation made last year may turn out to be on the conservative side, for example, that a rather higher rate of interest than that assumed may be earned, and that the revision of the scales of pay in 1923 may reduce the increase in salaries below that anticipated.'
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