RETRENCHMENT.

Feilding Star, 5 April 1909, Page 4

RETRENCHMENT.

THE GOVERNMENT POLICY. PRESS OPINIONS. We have gathered from our contemporaries eomo expressions of their opinion upon the new policy of tho Government as declared by the Premier in his speech last Friday night. The Dominion. Tho country will re-echo tho regrets expressed by* the Prime Minister at the hardships it has bcouie necessary to impose ; they will fully endorse his eulogies of tho* admirablo service rendered the country by many of the retiring officers; but no unbiassed person can for a moment protend to agreo with him that the shanielul stuffing of the Civil Service for party purposes which has taken place for so many years past was unavoidable. No one will dispute, and no one would cavil at tho legitimate growth of the public service, due to the development of the dominion and the growth of its trade and industries; but he places very lit/tlo value on the intelligence of the public when he puts forward the plea that the growth winch lias taken place in the Civil Service is legitimate, while at the same time he tells them that the service can be carried on satisfactorily despite the extensive reductions in its numbers now proposed. If the service is not greatly overstaffed, what justification has he for the lons list of dismissals already published, and for the further list foreshadowed. ... Had Ministers shown the same desire to economise before the elections as they have since displayed, tho drastic retrenchments so suddenly sprung on the Civil Service could have been carried out gradually, with less hardship to those who lose their positions, and with less chance of disturbing the maoliinery of the State and interfering with its standard of efficiency. New Zealand Times. Tho one essential point in the speech delivered by the Prime Minister last night is that the public service of tho country can be discharged effectively at a cost of a quarter of a million a year less than it now involves. All other considerations prompted by the speech are of subsidiary importance to that. In fact, it is doubtful if they have any importance at all, for in approaching the question of retrenchment in expenditure there is no question except that of cost and efficiency. There is a common habit on such occasions as these of expressing sorrow at contemplation of such steps as the Government proposes to take. This is an entirely vain regret, for this reason — that under no possible combination of circumstances, bo "times good" or bo "times bad,'- is an Administration justified in maintaining at the taxpayers' expense a Civil Service greater itt number or more costly in maintenance than is required for the effective discharge of the legitimate business of the country's affairs. The occasion for the reduction of wersonnel and expenditure certainly offers an opportunity to deplore the circumstances which have rendered such action necessary, but once tho need for action is detected, nothing remains except to endorse the action of an Administration which has the will and courage to do its duty to the community as a whole. Evening Post. It is impossible to withhold sympathy from the men ,for whom the anxiety of the last few weeks lias now been intensified or converted into the practical certainty that their present livelihood will ba taken from them, and that they must look for work elsewhere than m the Public Service, at a time when work in any clerical or urban employment is none too easy to get. Sympathy is due to men who must thus suffer through no fault el their own, and it' is a-lso due to the Ministers of tho Crown who, in the diselinvKC of their duty, have to make theemselves responsible for all this suffering on the part of innocent men. At the same time both the Government and the country must be heartily congratulated upon tho work that is now 2ii hand. Painful as the task is for everybody concerned, it is an absolutely necessary one in the public interest. For years the expenditure in Public Service has been swelling in an absolutely unpardonable manner. New departments and new billets havo been created wholesale. Even where this process was the result of some legitimate extension of the activities of the State, it was set about in the most costly way, without any attempt to co-ordinate tho new work with similar work which was already in hand, and so to accommodate existing machinery to the now use. Wanganui Chronicle. It is interesting to note one significant point of difference -between the retrenchment carried out by the Government of which the late Sir Harry Atkinson Avas the head and the scheme evolved 1 by the chief of the reigning Administration. In the former instance Sir Harry Atkinson and liis Ministers began by cutting down their own salaries. In the present caso there is no indication of selfsacrifice on the part of the members of the Cabinet. The Atkinson Government had to clear up the mess made by its Liberal predecessors, and was scourged by the country for its pains. The Ward Government proposes to follow a similar course of action hi atonement for the sins of its own party, and the country will \>9 expected to applaud it for its valour. Wanganui Herald. The amalgamation and retrenchment scheme in the Civil Service foreshadowed by the Premier at the Upper Hutt wiU be heartily welcomed throughout the length and breadth of tho dominion. For years it has been patent to every observant mind that the Civil Service expenditure has got out of all proportions, and that there is urgent necessity for very drastic reforms. The fact is, departments of State have of recent years been multiplying to an altogether absurd extent, every little additional departure from ordinary lines or the taking up of a new branch of public service seeming to necessitate the appointment of a separate head or manager with attendant inspectors, clerks, etc., who do little practical work, but whose time is almost wholly occupied in exchanging comiminications with other Departments of State. The Standard. The Government has suddenly found out "what the people want," and accoi'diugly it professes its readiness to oft'ect sweeping reforms. It admits that there is friction through the clogging and over-lapping which has "crept"— the Premier's own word— into the service, and that there arc circumstances which call for re-organi-sation and re-adjustment. We suppose- the ' Government's tardy conversion to this view is to be welcomed on the '.'better late than never" principle, but at the same time it is impossible to forget tho fait that if the business of the dominion had been properly attended to the present position Avtth the many painful consequences entailed upon conscientious and faithful pubhu servants, would never have arisen. Under a more careful regime it would never have been recessary in a period of industrial depression and financial stringency to throw such a considerable body of State employees out of employment. At any rate, the progress of events has justified as sound in every particular the Opposition criticism ot" Government policy, and the country will 'look to Sir Joseph Ward for a more explicit^ and satisfying explanation oi the results of his administration. Reference to the Government's defence proposals must be postponed until they are more definitely elaborated. Present details are Wo meagre to enable a general idea of their efficacy to be. formed. Manawatu Daily Times. In this very matter of administra--tivo reform and economy the Government is following a policy (Mibefately laid down by itself. Speaking here before the elections, Sir Joseph .Ward said that it was his intention to call a truce foi* legislation, oxcept such as was shown to be necesasry for completion, but that the Government intended to devote itself to administrative reform. That statement was ridiculed at the time by Opposition speakers, but it had been mentioned before by the Premier, and -it was known that it -had been in hie mind over" »inoe h© took office to do this on the first favourable opportunity.