How Fiji Dealt with Financial Crisis

Civil Service Escapes Cuts—Deficit Charged Against Accumulated Surplus

From Our Own Correspondent

SUVA, November 26.

THE October session of the Legislative Council of Fiji was opened with the usual ceremony.

The Governor, Sir Murchison Fletcher, and his A.D.C. arrived in brilliant uniforms, to be received by a guard of honour of smart and soldierly Fijians (volunteers) headed by the Fiji Defence Force Band.

The main interest of the session was centred in the estimates of revenue and ex penditure, which were presented for the year 1932.

This shows that the estimated revenue in 1931 will be £557,424 and that the expendi ture is estimated to total £606,302. There will thus be a deficit on the year of £48,878, and it is proposed to charge this deficit against the surplus funds of the Colony, thus reduc ing the surplus to £138,842 for 1932.

The 1932 revenue is estimated at £543,778, against which expenditure is estimated to total approximately £542,500. In 1930 the actual revenue amounted to £638,763 and the actual expenditure is £645,292.

The annual expenditure has greatly in creased since 1913, although the products of the colony are, in the case of sugar and copra, below 1913 prices. This fact led to a resolution being proposed that the salaries

of Civil Servants should be reduced tempor arily in view of the economic condition of the Colony. The debate on this motion cre ated more interest in the proceedings of the Legislative Council than has been the case for a long time.

The Governor ruled that the question of salaries was not one which he could decide, and he gave permission to the official (i.e.

Civil Service) members to vote on the motion.

The result was naturally a foregone conclu sion: but, in any case, it was generally agreed on the beach that the Government side had easily the best of the debate. In view of public interest in the question the official report on the debate (which had to be printed in any case to send to send to the Secretary of State for the Colonies) was published by the Government and made available through out Fiji. The Government is, indeed, to be congratulated on having taken this step and thus permitting every colonist to judge the question for himself.

Sir Maynard Hedstrom led off with an in teresting statement showing the salaries paid to the holders of various posts in 1913, as com pared with the salaries paid for the same posts in 1930. Some of the increases were striking, such as that of the Superintendent of Agriculture, the salary of whose post jumped from £475 to £1,150, and the Treas urer, from £600 to £1,200. In 1913, 30 per cent, of the revenue was paid out in personal emoluments (i.e. salaries, etc.). In 1930 the percentage had risen to 41 per cent. Exports in 1913 and 1930 were valued at about the same figure, i.e., one and a half millions sterling. The proportion of personal emolu ments to the value of our exports amounted to 6.7 per cent, in 1913, but in 1930 had risen to 15 per cent.

All of the members of the Council spoke in turn, but it would be impossible to deal with all their speeches in this summary.

The Secretary for Native Affairs (the Hon ourable I. McOwan, C.M.G.. who retires this year, after close on 40 years’ service, mainly in Fiji) was most interesting in his speech, which dealt with the depression of the 80’s and the similar series of disasters which affected the Colony, in the shape of hurri canes. The Colony has accumulated sur pluses during prosperous years, has seen them disappear during the lean years, and has been able to accumulate further surpluses in the next cycle.

The burden of most of the elected mem bers’ speeches was that the Colony was in a very bad way. and that the Governor had been unduly optimistic in his estimate of revenue. They claimed, in view of their closer connection with the planting and business community, to be more in touch with the position than Government officials.

The burden of the official members’ replies was that the Colony was not really in such a bad way. that its finances were sound, and that reduction in Civil Servants’ salaries would lead to eventual reduction in the standard of the service.

The Governor summed up the debate by pointing out that in the past two years he had reduced salaries by the sum of £13,000, and that if the Government were to put into force the reductions adopted by certain commercial firms the total sum re quired would be £17,000, an addition of only £4,000 over the saving already made. He said that there are only 5 places in the whole of the Empire which stand above Fiji in re gard to the value of their exports as com pared with their revenue. These places are all small territories—Solomons, Gilbert and Ellice, Falkland Islands, Sarawak, and Nauru.

Was the Colony really in such a bad wav?

The Governor then proceeded to quote the opinion of one who, he said, had a distinct place in the business world in Fiji, and was entirely untrammelled by any political inhi bitions, i.e., Hon. Henry Marks. C.B.E.. whose whose opinion was that the Governor’s esti mate of revenue was, if anything, too con

servative, and he thought that results for 1932, would be, subject to normal weather conditions, very much better than the Gov ernor had provided for.

This opinion, of course, was a very strong blow to the case put forward by the elected Members and took much of the sting out of their case. The Governor finished a witty and pleasant speech with a simile which will bring delight to many in these islands who go down to the sea in ships. He was dealing with the question as to whether the alternative before the Colony was economy or shipwrek, and he said, “I see rocks on the lee shore, but I feel a favourable wind blowing off it—force not too great, certainly not hurricane force, and I hope with your help I may be able to steer the ship of State safely into smooth waters.”

The motion for the reduction of civil service salaries was then, put and lost by 14 votes to 6, the three Fijian members voting with the official members. The question now goes to the Secretary of State for the Colonies for decision. We think that any civil servant would be able to insure himself against a reduction in salary, at odds of at least 100 to 1 against!