A RETRENCHMENT INCIDENT.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2264, 12 May 1891, Page 4

A RETRENCHMENT INCIDENT.

. » The " retrenching " of the present Ministry reminds the ' Feilding Star ' of something which happened in Auckland some time in the sixties, when there was a change of Ministry. A very high official was dismissed and the usual salary for one month given him. He was content, and being a man of some private means, commenced making arrangements for a trip to the Old Country. In the meantime, the minister found he had made a mistake, because none of the new hands (friends of his, of course) knew anything whatever of the work to be done, or how to complete what was commenced. The " retrenched " man waj cent for in haste by the Minister, who was politely told that the former servant of the State was at his hotel, and he would gladly make an appointment if the Minister liked to call on him. This was turning the tables with a vengeance, bnt ultimately a compromise was effected, and for the consideration of £200, the " retrenched " consented to postpone his trip to England a month, and go back to work for that term. His salary before had been at the rate of £500 a year. Virtue had its reward. It was the same gentleman who, as a lieutenant in the R.N., applied for command of one of the gunboats on the Waikato. He was plainly dressed and his physique was not that of an Adonis, so Mr Thomas Russell, who was the Minister for Defence, said " Well, you don't look like a Naval Officer. His interlocutor calmly " eyed over " Mr Eussell, who had as few claims to be called a beauty, and said, " Well, you don't look much like a War Minister." 08/Ussell shipped him at once.