Manamatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 23,1891. Our Government.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 23 April 1891, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1891. Our Government.

The question must naturally arise in men's minds, after reading the reports of the reckless manner in which the Civil Service is being dealt with by two of the Ministers, have we a Government ? Is the Premier any more than a name? We are not upholders of a useless and costly Civil Service, but we are upholders of fair play, and we most unhesitatingly assert that the action, of what must be called the act of the Government, though it is only the action of Messrs Seddon and McKenzie, in regard to certain gentlemen they have dismissed, is most flagrantly unjust, and should be most vehemently objected to. Whatever other action these two Ministers may take to wreck their political characters would not be of much consequence, did they not wantonly disgrace the good name of the taxpayers of the colony. It is asserted that for the purposes of retrenchment the Government have dismissed Mr Francis Stevens, the Chief Clerk in the Lands Department, with the least possible notice. This gentleman has been twenty-nine and a half years in office, and would have been entitled, in six months time, to a pension. The Minister of Lands, Mr J. McKenzie, who has held office for not quite four months, fancies he is capable of forming an opinion as to the fitness of the clerks under him, and so ill-judges the opinion of the colony, by imagining that they will approve of his giving an old servant 13 days notice, so as to enable the country to do him out of his pension.

The Secretary to the Land Board at Dunedin, Mr D. M. McGowan, after 33 years service, has also been given 14 days notice to leave ! There is the very old saying about putting a beggar on horseback and he wili ride to the devil, and if ever there was an instance required in politics surely we have it in the persons of these two retrenching Ministers. The country will not appiwe of their actions, for the majority love fair play, and no one can say thafc these gentlemen who have served the State so long, have had it. The country wants economical administration, but wants no pettifogging quibbling to prevent a man receiving a pension that he has almost earned. We cannot understand the Premier in refraining from checking these new and impetuous Ministers, but musfc charitably suppose thafc the very difficult task of endeavouring fco make land and income tax produce an amount equivalent to the property tax, has occupied all his time. The Ministry is doomed, and the Premier will chiefly have to thank the reckless use that Messrs Seddon and McKenzie have made of their short elevation to office, for this, to him, unsatisfactory position.