HOW THE MONEY GOES.

Press, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5685, 7 December 1883, Page 3

HOW THE MONEY GOES.

;gj ■ TO THB ED-TOK 0» THB MUMS, § Sib,—l see it stated by a contemporary, v. : answer to a correspondent, that A the . government ot the country costs in round. jgamberß __,600,(__» per annum. This is _ large sum to be spent in legislation, Ac„ 'for half a miUion of people. It has been, [the practice hitherto to cry out about tha on loans, as if aU the money west in that way, and although it can_ot.be [denied that the amount ia large enough, [being J81,506,441, , yet it is Uttle more than half that is spent in keeping the GovernSment machine going. Each of us liable to pay property tax has by this tiuie received his little account from the Commissioner, - with a gentle reminder added that if not paid within fourteen ilays 2a in tlie _c wUI be tacked on to it. Ido not think therefore that it is out of time or place to caU the attentioa of the pubUc to the sum, ever increasing, that is annually | recklessly flong away by the men entrusted with the management of the afft.ii- of the. colony. I use the expressions "ivekleasljr' and "flung away" advisedly,for what can be pointed at as results at aU commensurate with the yearly outlay? What becomes of all this money P Tn a feneral way we are informed that certain, epartments of the public service w _. require bo much for the year, but where ere tbe particulars P Has the time come, or must we wait tiU _t_l darker days axe upon .üb, when it may be too late, before attempting to correct the existing state ot affairs. My own opinion is that the time has come, that it would be down right, madness to postpone it a day longer. Pro- ; mises of refoim in the CivU Service are made each session to be ignored as soon aa .. over, and the mest rigid economy was to to have been enforced in every deportment !of the Government, but the flaures quoted above teU us plainly enough how all this has ended in greater extravagance. t_a_ever. The people themselves are, however, directly to blame for bo __Bat_factox7._ condition of our finances. Men-are re-. turned to the Assembly utterly unfitted in every way for looking after matters there* Sham attempts are made at- cutting down, the estimates each session by k_owi_g tones, .who are feted on returning to theie Kconstituencieß, weU knowing within themselves what impostors they are, and h<Jff undeserving of such attentions. Falling the turning up of some- speciaUy ettduea and constituted individual to stem the to*" rent of jobbery and corruption, there is but one remedy to my mind, and that ia for the people to hold meetings and pass reeolutions condemning the present Administration, and demanding, m terms that wiU admit of no denial, that exactly half the number of clerks in each department of the pubUc service be at - once discharged, the whole of the work to be performed by the other half by their working the same number of hours that at present constitute a working man's day's labor, viz., eight. The Civil Service hours now are from ten to three, that is, four hours; and as their work is the tightest* half their time being spent in talking or reading the papers, there wiU be no hardship in insisting • that a fair day's' work , shaUbedone for a fair day's pay. That every man in tiie Government employ that; can be done without by any posaibUity be 'dispensed with. That members of the' Legislative CouncU receive no payment henceforth. That.Ministers' salaries be cut down 10 per cent. That the raUwaya be managed by a non-poUtical body. That the Native Department be abolished, and the Natives treated as Europeans., By these means, and .these alone, 1 make bo la to Bay, can we hope to lessen, the butdena Ithat are being pUed more and more on our backs. . . ■ A Taxpa__