FALSE ECONOMY!

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13107, 22 April 1903, Page 6

FALSE ECONOMY!

Mr Kinsella’s resignation of his posh tion as Dairy Commissioner is a distinct! loss to tho colony, and ought to direct renewed attention to the Government's methods of treating its experts. We have protested again and again against the niggardly policy by which officers who have proved their value here have been driven into accepting appointments in other colonies, but apparently the public are still unable to realise that these gentlemen cannot bo retained without the payment of adequate salaries. Mr Kinselja, who is admitted to be one of the ablest dairy experts tho colony has ever had, is receiving a salary which would not be deemed extravagant if it were paid to a second-rate clerk, and it is small wonder that when) the Transvaal authorities offered him an appointment at £BOO a year ho promptly accepted it. What he and his predecessors have done for the dairy industry may bo easily .seen by comparing the prices obtained for New Zealand butter and cheese in Loudon previous to the recent disorganisation of the market with those that prevailed a few years ago. New Zealand butter is now quoted with Danish and New Zealand oboese with Canadian, and thousands of pounds have been put into the pockets of the producers. An improvement of only one shilling a hundredweight in tho quality of our dairy produce would mean a gab; of something like £20,000 a year, and probably this, advance has been obtained several times over by Mr Kinsella’s personal efforts. The announcement that the vacancy caused by the Commissioner’s resignation will not be filled up immediately, “ because the present is the off-season,” U characteristic of tho methods of-the Agricultural Department. If the Government has to go to England or Canada for a successor to Air Kinsella, three or four month! will be occupied hr finding a suitable man* and then it will take at least as long to bring him to the colony and initiate him ii his duties. By that, time the new season will be half-over, and the Government, for the -sake of saving a paltry £IOO or so, will have imperilled the position of tho whole industry. The Minister of Agriculture is certainly taxing the patience of the farming community. He has been relieved, in his capacity of Minister of Lands, of the administration of the Land for Settlements Act, and it would be well for the credit of the Government if he were given “ some assistance,”' to follow the Premier s euphemistic way of putting it, in the con-. It cl of the departmental experts. If the present state of affairs is allowed to continue tire interests of the colony will undoubtedly suffer very severely.