Big Increase in Salaries
p. 77 · Read in the full issue
Salaries for P-NG Native Police
From Our Own Correspondent
Port Moresby Nov. 30.
A NATIVE policeman’s lot in the Terri tory is likely to be a happier one (if money has anything to do with happiness), for pay rates are taking a big jump. And since the increases are retrospective to January 1, 1950, the native police are in for a tidy windfall.
The plain fact is that police wages have been so low, compared with the big money being paid by private enterprise and government departments for semi-skilled labour, that it has been difficult to get and retain police boys.
Under the new rates a third year con stable who has previously been getting 30/- a month, will now get 45/-. A cor porals wages (on promotion) increase from £2/5/- to £6/10/- a month; Sergeant- Major tecond Class jump from £5/5/- to £l2/10/- on promotion, and another £2 after two years. A Sergeant-Major Ist Class gets £l7/10/- per month—an increase of £7/10/-.
This is worth a moment’s calculation: £l4/10/- a month, plus uniform, plus rations for self, wife and children, plus free quarters, light, water and transport, medical treatment, and, in some cases, marginal payments for certain skills. The policeman’s lot ought to be a happy one.
A European employee in the Territory, with £l4/10/- a month left in cash after supporting a family and paying sundry other costs, would count himself lucky.