RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 478, 10 April 1909, Page 7

RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM.

Sir,—With a great flourish of so-called Liberal trumpets and fanfare, tho Prime Minister announces that wholesale reductions in tho public son-ices are contemplated. At first blush tho reformer is inclined to credit tho Government with good intent; a closer examination of Sir.Joseph .Ward's proposals discloses the inherent weaknesses of them. It must be remembered that the complaint of tho Reform Party is not that the I public services aro over-manned. It is very doubtful if they are, but oven conceding this, it was the Government that was responsible for it. Now tho pendulum swings back to tho other extreme. Tho consolidation of Departments will heavily iiicreaso ttic official burdens public servant's, and tho public interests will suffer consequently. Large numbers of men holding subordinate positions aro to be dismissed and dumped into tho already congested labour mart in the towns. Meanwhile the men who hold sinecures with "liberal" _ stipends, attached, to them aro to bo permitted to pursuo tho easy life, and moro secretaries of trades unions will be appointed for partisan purposes to paralyse the Independent' 1 Labour party. Any public servant who .belongs to' the Liberal and Labour Federation can still feed at tho public crib. Tho just complaint of tho Reform party that appointments aro made to tho services not for fitness, hut from partisan motives, is ignored. Tho entire object of the Prime Minister's scheme is to dish and discredit the reformers, but if tho people are discerning, it will fail. Nothing can arrest tho inevitable. The Ward Government is doomed to defeat the next time it goes to tho polls.—l am, etc., F. W. BURKE.