The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1892.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6376, 11 February 1892, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1892.

Tim Government are continuing that line of consistoi.t attitude towards tho Civil Service whioh has led to the belief that politic." in this cu'oi.y it merely a game of grab. To a moderate extent the principle of "spoils to the victor " has always been recognised, but the wholesale manner in which the present Government are grabbing everything thoy can Jay hands on at the expeiiHo of the country is assuming alarming proportions. Tho other day it v> as notified that a batch of old Civil Servants wore to be retired on pension at tho end of March. It. was just one of those notifications that, being read by tho general public, is taken as a mutter of course and forgotten. But a little enquiry di.sclc.9es the fact that a Minister, wishing to .'xercis'o Bomo patronage, can put the colony to great and unuecesi .ry expense without drawing upon himself much attention. Let uh take the cane of Mr ii. Patten. Collector of v'ustoms here, who is to bo retired on Match Ill.'t. Mr Patten has been thirty three years in the service, aud is in receipt of £!('.'_ a year. His billot, wo presume, is coveted for some one of the " right cidor," so ho is to be pensioned off at a time of lite when he is as "sound as a bell," and as fully capable of performing his duties as ever he was. The pension he is entitled to is .£270 a year. In getting his dismissal he is courteously thanked by the Minister fur his services, which tire acknowledged tohavu beeu oi much value to the colon)', and he is assured that it is only ou grounds of economy that he is to bo retired. This is tho most trai.sparent humbug of the whole proceeding, and it would have been far inoro manly if Mr Pal ten had been plainly told that, while the Minister did not wish to do him any harm, his bill-t was wanted for a friend of a G'JVeniMtut supporter. On no other ground can we see that Mr Patten's retirement can bo justified, for a very simple calculation will show that the economy attempted by it will add to tho burdens of tho people. It is impossible for anyone to show that retrenchment is effected by giving a man £27;_> a y.ar for doing nothing. Mr Patten is good for anoitar ten years it least of hard oilicial work, aud surely it is the poorest of economy to shunt him on a pension. His successor, perhaps, will not receive tho salary that has been drawn by Mr Patten, but the Collector of Customs at this port will certainly not have less than £-100 a year. Wo shall have thu*, say, a Collector at £400 a year, and a pen ioner at £275 a year, making a total of £075 a year instead of an expen-e of £ -105 per annum, a dead loss of £210 a year. And this is not only at Napier, but five or six other old capable officers in other parts of the colony are to be treated iv the same way. Again, there is to be a shifting of officers in the Customs Department, and Mr R Carter is to be sent to Dunedin, and this at the expense of tho colony. In these things we haveau example of how public affairs aro administered by a Government which has deprecated criticism, and appeals for wupport on tho grounds of retrenchment and efficiency.