CO129-524-1 Reports of Salaries Commission 31-12-1929 - 27-10-1930 — Page 106

3.

108

5.

6.

in finding out what the Committee means by this cryptic

utterance.

In one respect, at least, the Committee comes to a correct

conclusion that the Salaries Commission based their

*

Report on a 2/- dollar. This is clear from paragraph 7 of our Report; but it should not be forgotten that at the end of that paragraph we said that there was some probability that the dollar would "remain in the region of 2/-; though it would be a rash man who would stake his reputation on an unqualified opinion as to the exchange value of the dollar in any circumstances."

Foreseeing clearly that there was no real certainty that

the dollar would remain at or near 2/-, we took that figure as the bases on which we would translate the sterling salaries we recommended into dollars but we expressly provided for payment according to the average monthly rate of exchange for all values of the dollar below 2/-.

It is also to be remembered that the present scale of $12 to the £1, when it was devised, did not represent the exchange

value of the dollar. It was intended to confer a bene fit

and the scale stopped at 1/8 because no one thought the

dollar would sink as low as it has done. The High Cost of

Living Allowance, also, was introduced at a time when the

rate of $12 to the £1 still brought material advantage to the Government employee because this advantage did not

compensate him for the increase in the cost of living.

The fall in the dollar to 1/6 increases the cost of

remittances to England and the prices of imported

commodities have also gone up, but for some reason that

is not made clear the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce

protests against the recognition of this serious state of

affairs.

The fall of the dollar to 1/6 has eaten away more than the

margin