REDUCTION OF SALARIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 117, 20 May 1869, Page 3

REDUCTION OF SALARIES.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir — I was present at the] CouncU the other evening when the salary of the Chief Inspector of Fheep was reduced from £350 tothe starvation point of £200, and on my return home I happened to take up a work by" a well-known writer, entitled "The Common Place Philosopher," in ""which I came across the? following paragraph. As will be seen, it refers to the clergy, but ,perbaps your readers will agree with me that it is applicable to other officers besides those of the church. "You who wish to have an effiicent clergy who will do their work heartily and well, agitate against that wicked and idiotic notion that a clergyman is likely to do his work best if he be crushed down by the pressure of poverty; if his wife be worn into her grave by sorry schemings •to make the little means go their farthest ; and if his p'-or little children have to run ahout without shoes and stockings. • There are certain .arguments which I should not think of meeting by argument ; but rather by the severest application of the cat o' nine tails. And one of these is the opinion of the old fool (he wns a Scotch Judge), who said that " a puir church wou!d he a pure church." Trusting that this may be read, marked, learned, •and inwardly digested by some of our unwise I am, &c, Anti Starvation. To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail Sir — That often assailed but seldom defended class, the Government officers, have been dropping in for it pretty stiffly of late. I confess I have not left the gallery of the Council Chamber with any very exalted view of the talent or even *the common sense of some of the members of that august body. It would appear that their notions concerning the public service have been derived from factories in England, in which, no doubt, some of those hon. gentlemen were brought up, and where they wonld have been until now, if the assisted passage system had not enabled them to come to this country as Government emigrants, where fortune smiled upon them, not, however, on account of their talent, but because she had nobody else to • smile upon when they came here. These gentlemen, acting in accordance with their factory views, have put the Commissioner of Crown Lands on "half-time," while the Provincial Secretary will, I presume, have the opportunity of making a little "overtime," since he is to manage the Land Office half the year. And it is to be hoped, Sir, that he will be able to lay by a little money in the Savings Bank, against the time when his own salary shall be cut down to £150 a year, and himself put on "short time." The way in which these hon. gentlemen reason is quite remarkable, for example, because they can •get a great, big, ignorant country lout to follow the plough for about tbree shillings per day and his mutton, they conclude that the Government ought to get an educated man to fill a responsible office, at the same price. But, Sir, I have a practical suggestion to make. Do you not think it would meet the views of those hon. gentlemen, if the Government were to advertise for tenders rfor the supply of rations, for Government officers on some economical scaU. Thpy might also lodge them in the Taranaki Buildings, and then a very small salary would do, and thus a saving of money would be effected, and should the Taranaki Buildings be found insufficient, the -single men might do with a shake down in the Joft of the Government stables. Yours, &c, One op mE People.