The Ensign. GORE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 1. RETRENCHMENT.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1135, 13 January 1903, Page 2

The Ensign. GORE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 1. RETRENCHMENT.

With no flourish of trumpets, but with as much stealth as possible, the Government is "facing the inevitable and embarking upon a mild policy of retrenchment. So far only the Defence Department has been singled out for attention in this respect, and a wholesale clearance has been effected of a number of extremely zealous and capable officials, as well as of a large batch of supernumaries. It bus been recognised for some years that the military establishment of the colony required lopping at the head and tail to rescue it from the domain of tin-soldierdom, and if the present retrenchments are to be made the forerunner of a reorganisation of the whole system upon lines suggested by modern experience, then the hardships occasioned to the few will be swallowed up in the advantages secured to the many. It must be confessed, however, that the newly-found virtue of the Government has led it into incongruous paths, for we read of its having decided to effect certain economies whioh will result in the saving of sixpence per diem from the wages of some unfortunate individuals, who doubtless can ill afford even such modest pruning of their emoluments. Vague hints are offered that the retrenchment js to extend to other branches of the civil service, but upon this point no definite information is available. That retrenchment of any sort was necessary has all along been strenuously denied by members of the Government in tbe face of plain statements of incontrovertible facts that the resources of the colony could not possibly bear the strain of arrant extravagance for very much longer, But the day of sackcloth and ashes is at hand, and the present Administration, interpreting the signs of the times aright, has wisely decided to do something in the sacred name of Economy,

even to the extent of reducing ' the salaries of some of its servants by sixpence per diem. That the perfumed and pampered pets of political patronage will be among the last to feel the pinch of retrenchment is a foregone conclusion. The' Government has been notoriously kind to creatures of its own, and in caring f.n these the taxpayers at large have been spoiled, and the cost to the community at large of the privilege of living in the colony as citizens largely increased. If the Premier and some of his Ministers had volunteered tc curtail tbe magnificent proportions of the sums they draw annually from the public purse in the shape of salaries, expenses, travelling allowances, etc., and allowed the pitiful sixpeoce per day to remain attached to tbe wages of the Defence Department officials now prunosed forsactifiaa upon the altar of economy, greater faith in the sincerity of tboir motives would have obtained. And if they themselves did not feel feel called upon to forego any monetary advantage for the sake of the prosperity of the country, they might at least have propounded a soheme for the reduction of the salaries of members of both Houses to the amounts formerly paid. These were included among the most recent items of increased expenditure, and naturally should be among the first to be subjected to the pruning knife. It is too much toexpect that anything on the lines we have suggested will be carried into-effect, and in the meantime it must suffice as a cause for sincere gratification that the Government has enunciated the principles of retrenchment in any shape or form. In other State departments outside that to which reference has been made an elaborate system of overstaffing with incapable political favorites has been going on for years. The type of officials is such that there are by no means too many of them for the work to be done ; but if scores of them were thrust out neck and crop and their places taken by a considerably lesser number of a higher standard of efficiency, a great saving would be effected and the colony as a whole would benefit by the change. But as we have already observed, to expect such a reformation is to anticipate what is impossible under the present reijime. The principle of rewarding political sycohpancy by employment under the State has become too firmly established to be dislodged by the pressing needs of a perilous financial situation. Civil servants who have no friends at court will be the first to feel the weight of a blow from depression, and even though the whole fabric upon which the financial prosperity of the country is erected BUould fall chaotic, in ruins, there would be found among the wreckage a comprehensive cluster of Seddonian officials still able and willing to draw handsome salaries for continuing to do nothing save loudly blessing the hand that' befriended them.