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CURRENT COMMENT.
State Finances.
At the end of March, last year, the
State Treasury was showing a progress
deficit of £276,000, but the position im
proved to such an extent during the
remaining quarter that. the year ended
with a deficit of less than £11,00--that
is to say, the April-June returns showed
a net surplus of £265,000. This year to
the same date the deficit amounts to
£370,000, notwithstanding that revenue
is shown as having iiacreased by
£210,000-mn increase which is to the
extent of at least nearly 50 per cent
fictitious. Comparisons between com
parable periods of any two years are
not necessarily valid, and the progress
deficit to the end of last month is cer
tainly not comparable with the figure
to the corresponding date of the pre
vious year, for the actual retrogression
is considerably greater than the £94,000
omcially recorded. It is the normal
experience that the year will end with
better figures than the March progress
results. This year is not expected to
prove an exception to this almost in
variable rule. But the fact that the
Government has asked, and received,
accommodation for an end-of-the-year
deficit of £220,000 Indicates very strongly
that it expects the improvement to be
less this year than it was last year.
To reduce a deficit of £370,000 to one
of £220,000 presupposes an April-June
net surplus of £150,000, compared with
£265,000 for the same period of 1938.
If £220,000 proves a shrewd guess at the
deficit for 1938-39 there will be a re
corded retrogression of £209,000 and an
actual retrogression of not far short
of half a million pounds, compared with
last year. Yet in these circumstances
the Government considers that "the
time has arrived" for "abolishing" the
financial emergency toa. Morality, of
course, dictates that election pledges
should be honoured to the best of a
Government's ability, but on other
counts it is easy to demonstrate that
the time was, in fact, most inopportune
for the Government to propose this
long-delayed reform.
Industrial Research Officer.
An "unusual procedure" in the West
Australian public service has been
adopted of requiring applicants for the
past of Industrial and economic re
search officer to state the,sSplary they
expect to receive. It will be Interest
ing to watch how this procedure works
in practice. Admittedly it would be
difficult to fix in advance the salary
value of this new job because the officer
selected would create his own value,
perhaps as much by his personality,
initiative and driving force as by his
experience and technical qualifications.
He might be worth thousands or he
might be worth nothing. It remains to
be seen whether he will prove a fair
judge of what he Is worth. This method
of salary determination would' ap
pear to introduce a competitive ele
ment into the recruiting of the public
service. Much would depend upon how
candidates have reacted to the invita
tion, and that must largely depend upon
how they would expect the Government
to react to the values which they place
on their own abilities. Presumably,
those who conclude that the Govern
ment is studying economy will have
made their bid competitively low. But
if others have thought that the Gov
ernment will judge their worth by their
own estimate of its value, they may
havqebeen inclined to bid up for recog
nition. When the Government selects
its man does it propose to be influ
enced by what that man considers him
self to be worth? For surely, when the
Government has the applications before
it, it will be able to form some opinion
of its own. Assuming that the appli
cant will be picked, in the first place,
on his qualifications and personality, is
it to be assumed that the Government
will accept his tender if it is above the
Government's assessment of the value
of his services, or will It at least en
deavour to beat- him down? And if it
intends to try to beat down a tender
Which it considers too high, how will
it react to a desirable applicant whose
tender it might consider too low? Will
it consider any tender too low? In the
appointment of this officer the Govern
ment is to some extent blazing a new
trail, but the "unusual procedure" it
has adopted in arriving at the value
of this office seems to call for some con
sideration from the standpoint of
whether it .is an altogether desirable
procedure.
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