THE TEN PER CENT. REDUCTION. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 39, 15 August 1881, Page 2

THE TEN PER CENT. REDUCTION. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

[christchurch press.] We have had enoagh of indiscriminate reluctions, and we want no more of them. Let the pnblic servants bo decently, even liberally, paid for their sorvicos; but let there be as few of them employed as possible. As a matt«r of fact, the scale of salaries in New Zealand ia nona too lavish, [t is the number of officials that is too great. If we bad only half as many, and they wero better paid by fifty per cent than they aro, tho country would be trebly a gainer. It would got its work better done, tho departmental expenditure would be diminished one-fonrth, and tho political influence of the Civil Service wonld be enormously reduced. Nothing cau bo more embarrassing to the Government of any country than the existence in it of a multitude of underpaid officials. Instead of cheerfully attending to their duties they are emgaged in promoting political influence, in order to get enough to live upon. Every one who has ever beon in Parliament, and still more, any one who has ever been in office, knows that this is so. Now, the tendency of tho policy of the present Ministry is to terminate this miserable state of things, and to make the public service a powerful and effeotive instrument of government, instead of being a refuge for the destitute and a hot-bed of petty political intrigue. [timaru herald ] We understand that Mr Saunders and others of his extreme way of thinking hold not so much th*t it would have been batter to continue the ten per cent, reduction than to institute systematic rotronohmeut . as that the Government ought to have maintained the ten per oent. reduction in addition to instituting systematic retrenchment. That is to say, they would have not only a very small number of officers, but also a very low scale of pay. We do not agree with them at all. If the Civil Service is over to be what it ought to be, the offio^rs must be treated with reasonable liberality. They must be plaoed above anxioty. Th"re ia nothing gaiuei by screwing them down to the last shilling that thoy can bo got to serve for. On the contrary, suoh a courao only disheartons aud irritates them, and utterly unfits them for attending properly to the public business. Their one idea is to get out of the servico as Boon as possible, and they only remain in it, under an abiding sense of injury, until the first opportunity of escape oocurs. Is that a good state of feeling to prevail in the Pnblic Service of the colony ? Wo say it is not, and we maintain that the public would lose much more by the prevalence of such a feeling than they would gaiu by the paltry saving to be effeoted by shearing tho shorn flock again. We hold that the Civil Service of New Zealand has been ruined by tho per* siatent abuse of patronaure that went on from the establishment of the Vogol rigime in 1870 down to the assumption of offioo by tho present Ministry. During that period the number of officials was more than doubled. It became a regular praotioo for every Minister to find a plttoo for all hid political or even private friends and dependents, not because they were wanted in the public service but beoauso they wanted the publio pay. The viuious example of Minis- tors was faithfully followed by the heads of departments and even by subordinate officials. The service became over* grown and overcrowded. The number of officials was enormous, but tho nnmbor of capable officials was very small indeed. Tho number of really first-class ofHoiale could almost be counted on the fingers. The work was divided among so many that nope of them got any sound training. Discipline was out of tho question. The country was said to be governed by under-socrot&ries, and so it was iv the sense that the officials controlled tho Government instead of tho Government controlling tho officials. But it was really misgoverned, or not governed at all. The Grey Ministry admitted their inability to oopo with tho power of tho officials, or to effect any substantial reforms, and resolved not to make the attempt. Tuo present Ministry took quite a different cours*. Aided very mater ally, no doubt, by tho ten per cent, reduction, which was a tremendous Warning to the Civil Service, thoy sot themselves resolutely to tho task of bringing the Service within handy dimensions. They have already gono a long way towards achieving thut task. If they remain in office a year or two longer thoy will complete it. But it is no part of their plan to starve the Civil Servico after getting it under control. 1 hey aro nearly as muoh interested in the well-being of tho officials as the officials themselves are. Their objcot is to make the Service e^.oientand at the same time economical, and the on'y way to do that is the wav they have adopted) namely, to employ as few officers aB possible, but to make those officers contented and Beoure. [OTAGO DAILY TIMES.] ' A complete reorganisation, a reduction of the staff to the smal'est limits compatible with a due and aoenrate performance of the work of the country, and amalgamation of superfluous departments, mu*t neoeasarily be a work of time. We believe tho Government are honestly setting themsolveß to tho task -dista«teful as it must necessarily be. But while we wish to see the servico on this new and better footing, it was nevor our deßire — nor, we believe, is it tho desire of anyone nave Mr. Saunders — that th < service should be degraded, and that the mombors oomposing it Bhould bo debarred from the ordinary privileges and enjoyments of sooial life.