Apr. 9.
Wirs the publication of their report on the remuneration and conditions in the Municipal Service, which appears to-day with this issue as a special number of the Gazette, the Municipal Salaries Commission have reached one stage in their extensive labours which will be completed when they issue their report on the subjects of retirement and superannuation, Undoubtedly these latter points are of greater domestic interest to the service than they are of public import—except so far as the question of finance is concerned—and it is possible at this juncture to review the results of the Commission's work and their general effect in Shanghai. The Municipal Salaries Commission, for the greater part of its labours consisted of ten business men representing most of the important phases of commercial activity in this port. Their well-considered opinion, as represented in the document under discussion, cannot, in view of the knowledge they must have themselves, and the mass of evidence taken, be seriously questioned. It must stand as a final decision in the problem of effecting some sort of equitable balance between the salaries of municipal servants and the cost of living in Shanghai, and, while their findings must necessarily entail increased financing from the ratepayers, the position appears to be that the community will have to accept it with as good a grace as possible. The report undoubtedly means that the municipal service will cost the ratepayer more. How much that increase will be it is difficult to foresee at present, but an increase it does mean and a further burden upon the}sion is undoubtedly right in taxpayer.
We are not concerned for the moment with certain of the findings which relate to departmental and inter-departmental relations, nor with such questions as those dealing with the career the service has to offer and the stamp of man required. But in the Commission's answers to these and kindred questions we find a warning note which cannot be ignored. They state in paragraph 3 of the report The Commission cannot but record its opinion that there exists in Shanghai a standard of living which is extravagant beyond all necessity >yand beyond al! reason, and this false standard of extra-valance reacts unfavourably on the whole life' of the community but most unfavourably on new arrivals who perhaps less through the fault of themselves than of their surroundings are tempted to maintain a Standard beyond both their needs and their means. The standard to which a Municipal employee should be able to conform is the standard to which other men of_ similar education, age and position in other concerns in Shanghai can reasonably conform. In this connexion the Commission regards as its most important recommendation the proposed adjustment of -the lower scales of pay in order to enable all employees to meet the higher cost of a reasonable standard of living.
The Commission has not endeavoured to assist the municipal employee to live up to these extravagant standards and their findings are based on a desire to give the employee an opportunity of living up to a reasonable standard having regard to all the facts in Shanghai. The decision in this respect is one with which most will concur. It is time a halt was called to the present methods of living in Shanghai, the reckless expenditure of money and the maintenance of standards considerably higher than those adopted by people in similar stations at home. And this refers not only to municipal servants but to a-large proportion of the community in general. The ratepayers cannot afford to allow their employees to live at the same rates and the Commis-its decision to frame its vecommendations in such a manner as to adjust lower scales of pay to enable employees in receipt of thereof to meet the higher cost of a. reasonable standard of living.
There can be little doubt of the justice of such a decision. Stories of municipal servants struggling to bring up families on salaries which would be small for many a young bachelor in commerce have been too frequent to be disregarded and of those the Commission probably knows more than do we, Upon such people the burden of existence must bear heavily and if, as we believe, the scales of salaries recommended amend this, the report is unlikely to be condemned in this respect. In the absence of information as to the actual salaries at present paid to individuals it is a little difficult: to establish any exact comparisons between pay as at present given and what it will be under the recommended scales. Taking an instance, of which we have knowledge through common report, we find that whereas a constable at present commences with a monthly remuneration of Ts. 105, the Commission recommends a starting salary of Tls. 140—an_ increase of 33 per cent. On the principle as laid down by the Commission and referred to above, it would seem that the largest increase is somewhere jin the neighbourhood of this figure, decreasing as the employee's salary rises in the scale until finally no advance is recommended. Thus we notice that the minimum salaries recommended for heads of departments are in many instances below those actually paid. The equity of such an arrangement seems indisputable, for it is upon the junior ranks that H. C. L. most heavily presses.
The application of the principle of house allowances throughout practically the whole service, restores an old practice applied formerly to certain ranks. Tt may be taken as a concession to the prevailing state of affairs.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.