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the cost of living; in fact the major recommendations of the Com- mittee were grouped in two parts, the first being headed Steady decrease of the purchasing power of the rupee and permanent re- vision of salaries" and the second, "Increase in cost of living due to war conditions: Temporary allowance on revised salaries not exceeding Rs.6,000."
The Committee paid no attention to the purchasing power of the rupee in exchange with the pound sterling, but concerned itself exclusively with the depreciation of its purchasing capacity in Mauritius. Mr. Walter's index numbers showed the Committee that Rs.1.08 in 1880 must be compared with Rs.1.65 in the period 1910 to August 1914. while during the war itself the comparable figure was Rs.3.03. The Committee accordingly recommended that the minimum rate of pay of the clerical service should be raised to Rs.600, that there should be a 30 per cent. increase on all salaries under Rs.6,000 and that the salaries of the superior officers should be "readjusted on an improved classification ,which in its practical result gave an average increase of 25 per cent. to the holders of the posts. The Committee also proposed to relieve the services of the small pension contributions, which then amounted to Rs.30,000, and gave officers the privilege of taking leave partly at the cost of Government. At the same time the Committee placed some wise restrictions on the grant of free quarters or an equivalent house allowance, on the practice of earning fees for private work, and on allowances for extra work and responsibility.
By these general increases the Committee claimed that they had placed the services in the position which they would have reached in 1914 had wages risen correspondingly with prices. They had still to deal with war conditions and they allowed for this by proposing, a war allowance on a graded scale which should be applied to the salaries as revised by the Committee, up to the limit of Rs.6,000. The allowance was not permanent, but no limit of time was fixed. The result was a very great increase for the non- - clerical wage-earning grades, a 20 per cent. increment for clerks between Rs.1,500 and 2,400, 15 per cent. for those drawing up to Rs.4,800 and 10 per cent. up to Rs.6.000. The Committee did not recommend any war allowance for the high officials but, pend- ing the revision of salaries on a permanent basis, proposed a graded scale of allowances which should be paid immediately, and this included a 15 per cent. allocation to officers on pay of Rs.7,500 to Rs.18,000.
Appendix II, which is the summary of our recommendations in regard to personal emoluments, shows in detail the pay which was given (a) by the permanent revision and (b) by the over- allowances of this Committee.
5. The reorganization of 1919 did not live long unchanged. Sir E. (then Mr.) Denham, wrote a memorandum, and the Salaries
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Commission appointed on 10th May, 1921, endorsed it. There are points of great interest in the memorandum and it is hard to restrict quotation from it. Mr. Denham included in the basis of bis recommendations the fall in the sterling value of the rupee, but he also rested his conclusions mainly on the local purchasing power of the rupee. "This island is passing through a period of excessive prosperity; all classes of the community, with the exception of Government servants, have at least two to four times as much money to spend as they had three or four years ago.
It may be contended that this period of prosperity is merely transitory, that prices will readjust themselves and that the While it is certainly cost of living will consequently decrease. probable that the present large profits will not continue in the sugar industry it may be realized that the immense wealth dis- tributed throughout the Colony from this industry has been largely due to the prudence and foresight of the planters in investing their capital in expensive machinery which should enable them in the future to derive considerable profits in sugar even if the price falls considerably. Further, this wealth has been distributed through a large number of channels, it has reached practically all classes It of the community except the Government servants must be recognized, however, that though this Colony may be able to afford increases of salary to-day, in the future it may not be able to bear heavy expenditure on personal emoluments, that as sugar prices fall so also will expenses, that rice and sugar for local consumption are now falling in price and that it may be anticipated that conditions of life will readjust themselves in time to pre-war conditions and that a salary which is to-day admittedly inadequate may to-morrow appear excessive. In a community, however, where wealth has been distributed to such a great extent, where the land has of late been divided out amongst a largely-increased number of owners, where taxation is so light, where expenditure is so restricted, where conditions are naturally so favourable, any rapid fall in prices seems unlikely."
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These extracts, which have an interesting bearing on the present position, leave no doubt that the new scheme of pay for the Civil Service was directly due to the general prosperity, to the high prices then prevailing and to the fact that the Civil Service was then no longer attractive.
6. The scheme of pay which was introduced in 1921 and 1922 would have been more wisely made had it followed the scheme of the Herchenroder Committee and treated part, at least, of the increase as in the nature of a war bonus justified by special condi- tions and terminable when those conditions ceased to prevail. This was not done.
While the final scheme was being worked out a temporary alloca- tion of 15 per cent. had been made to the officers in receipt of
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