SIR ROBERT STOUT'S ADDRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 7252, 1 July 1887, Page 2

SIR ROBERT STOUT'S ADDRESS.

TO THS BDIIOR. Sir,—As one who was a great' admirer of Sir Robert's, voted and worked for him, and now love him for his many personal qualities, I wish to express bow utterly, disheartened and pined I feel at hi* speech of last evening. It only equals, in my opinion, his stupid action towards the University student;. Another example of a man of the most generous impulses, full of patriotism, and a jealous worker, who his allowed his better judgment to be warped by his associates. tTtte speech was thoroughly unworthy of the man, for he treated us to a most vulnerai le tissue of sophistry, claptrap, special pleading, and spurious pathes. . ; ' Take the first point—the education expense-and it Is on this question Sir Robert'ls soundest.' What necessity was there fbr fajse (.analogies? It Is disingenuous to select the leading "literary city in America —the metropolis of higher education in the States (Boston)-a oity of 370,000 inhabitants, which Is fed by about 60,000,00ty0f Inhabitants the States possess. Then, Boston is peculiarly, the centre ohVtnosa richlypopulated New England States, v Is it. therefore to i-ei wondered at'that this learning!should tpend L 250.000 in one year more than does in education. The^nirly"sound system on whioh. our nublio education lished does notneeiJ such ridiculous comparisons. But are the present seoudary and higher systems here yet what they cu{bt to be, in equity to all classes, especially to the poor With the matter of Legislative expenditure, 81r Robert should have read to the meeting a oopy of his letttr to the' Speaker. The electors then would have been able to judge of his firmness in this direction; mere assertions count for nothing. When and where did he propose making a substantial reduotion in the honorarium - such a reduction as would have left to the delegates the extra-travelling and cost-of-living expenses for the time they were attending to the business of the country? What about the honorarium of the Legislative Councillors ? (Let m% here Interpolate that I am strongly of opionlon Sir Robert does not gain pecuniarily by being a principal politician. lam sure that if he stuck to his profession alone he would become a rloher man.) Why use the threat that, whatever may be the wishes of the people, "there would be no reduotion in the number of members"? la defenoe matters there can be considerable retrenchment effected without impairing the efflolency of the service. What about such political corps as the Naseby and Tuapeka ones—J. C. Brown's, and even Soobie Mackenzie's; Major Garner's appointment at Napier; the late Inspector of Musketry, and so forth ? What about the constant political medd iogwith defence administration, in whloh mess cooks have interviewed Ministers, and, by the aid of influence, have got their' gelflshaioaiinsplteof precedence or regulation!? Did plain John Bryoe ever do these things? The working railway!: Yon claim that, though 260 more miles are open, and there are fif ty-tbree new stations, and. a marked lnonase In tha trafflo and work done, yet. comparatively speaking, with the same staff ana without reduolog wages, the work can ba carried on. Did it never occur to you, it mob is the o*w, thatJn. the past this Department of the Civil Service mult have bad a very rosy tints of it} Does it yet do a fall amount of work for its pay ? It you are able to do so much in the Hallway and Postal Departments, that are really bard worked, how much more might you apply the same principle to other branches of the Civil Service ? Take your Burvey Dnwrtment and your engineer's staff, e.g. i Does tbs Colony require the same large staff it needed in the past, when there were so many surveys to be overtaken and so many public works in ' progress ? It is true your Government, at the end of three years, when the elections were looming up, proposed some dismissals in this direction: bat these proposals were brought down contingently on your Customs tariff and other things being accepted. Ton threw the onus and odium of the responsibility on the. House, and, for electioneering purposes, said in effeot" that if the House did not do one thing, then it oould not have the opportunity ct doing the other thing-viz., retrenchment—which was tacked on to it." If you want an example of the retrenching proolivities of your Government, kindly explain the apf (ointment of an old man in Port Chalmers as sheep nspeotor who, years before, had retired on compensation. Was that the price of a vote ? Sir Robert parades the statement that if his proposals had been oarried out, the taxation would have been reduced, for the first time since 1870, to the sum of L2 6sper head. But what about the other factors? The Sinking Fund. Where did the L 250,000 and more go? Is it floating in the debenture world? What about th» shuffling of taxation brought about by the local rates for hospital and charitable aid purposes? Sir Robert, after three yean of office, after trying to make people believe that bis Government have retrenched, and when in the meeting the cry of re- ; trenobmect is flunr back at him after bethought hehtd disposed of that bogie, he then, with a similar kind of childishness and petulance to that which Jed him to, expostulate with the 'Argus,'says; "{have a card yet in the background, Sicca I see you insist on retrenchment, I have a secret way of saving you another L 100.000; but unless you elect me I won't tell you my secret." Let me tell him as a friend, LIOO.OOO is notenough. He must manage to retrench sj as not to increase the taxation. He must goin for the drasio measures: he must grapple boldly and patriotically with that Civil Service that his followers in the House tell the public in private confidence they dare not touch; that both he and the Major and Mr M, J. S. Mackenzie are afraid of it. Then, and then alone, will he rise to a little of what the Colony desiderates.—l am, etc., Amicus, Dunedin, June 20. '"'*."