Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 222, 18 September 1880, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1880.

In the press throughout the colony the opinion is very generally expressed that the Government should, and in that section of it ■which favors the present Ministry, that they ■will, during the recess, show themselves to "be better administrators than they proved to be leaders of the House while Parliament was in session , and the particular matter in •which they are expected to excel is the difficult one of retrenchment. The task before them is not a pleasant one, but they cannot possibly shirk it, even should they desire to do so. When the Colonial Treasurer made his budget speech last year and repeated many of bis statements in the late session, many people, both in and out of the House, ■were of opinion that he was taking too gloomy a view of the .financial condition of the colony, but whether this was or. was not the case it is beyond all question that the assertions were made in all honesty, and that Major Atkinson himself firmly believed what he was saying, bo that at all events he and his colleagues must be deeply impressed •with the necessity for the exercise of the greatest care and economy in dealing with the colonial finances. Already a great step lias been taken in the direction of retrenchment in the all-round ten per cent, reduction, but this is so crude and unstatesmanlike a manner of dealing with the question, that •we cannot believe it will last beyond the present financial year, and shall certainly be much disappointed . if , during the. recess, some more carefully-considered scheme is not devised, which, while effecting savings to an equal amount, will be fairer in its operations to those principally concerned. There are various kinds of retrenchment, and an amusing anecdote is told by the Christchurch Press of one that was instituted by that' rigid economist Mr Macandrew, "who dispensed with the services of aH, .the officials his v department who came* from Canterbury, 'and 1 filled up their places with voracious North Britons from

Otago ,at a higher rate of pay. His defence of this . operation was really very clever. When challenged with it he replied that he was obliged to cut his coat according to his cloth, and that he had only effected the necessary economies. But when pressed for. an explanation of his filling up nil the vacancies with new men at an increased salary, he declared that the laborer was worthy of his hire, and that he would never muzzle the ox, &c. There is no reasoning against such argument." Taking this as a text our contemporary goes on to say:— "Now we sincerely hope that the present Government will not indulge in that kind of retrenchment at all events, It is indeed in abstaining from the exercise of patronage that their great opportunity for economy lies. We have several times pointed out that the preposterous extension of the civil service during the.last ten years has arisen ! not so much from the increase of the public business as from the inordinate eagerness of individual Ministers to provide for their friends and dependents. Now if the Hall Ministry, will only put a stop to that practice absolutely they will have taken a most important step towards departmental reform and economical administration. If they resolutely refuse to make a single new appointment, and fill up all vacancies occuriug from death,- resignation, superannuation, or dismissal, by selecting officers from the existiug stall:, the results, even. by next year, will bo very appreciable. Two or three years ' of this process of selfabsorption would bring the civil, service into very reasonable jbonncls, 'and enormously relieve the Treasury." Here, the right nail is bit on the head. The Civil Service has attained its present huge proportions mainly through the desire, or' at all events the willingness, of successi?e Ministries — for in this respect they have all been alike— -to giatify their supporters, and when was there a Ministerial supporter who bad not some friend for whom he was desire ous of obtaining a snug little b lot ? In this way office "after office has been created, and, in addition to this, a considerable amount of unfairness has been displayed towards^ those who have labored loug and faithfully in the Service by giving the plums to outsiders whose sole claims to consideralion at the hands of the Government have been .that they have been either as members of Parliament or as writers for the press staunch supporters or daugerous opponents. In the one case au appointment with a good salary was viewed by Ministers in the light of a well-earned reward, in tbe other as a convenient gag. And so the ball has been kept merrily rolling., for a succession of years until the Civil Service has become a real incubus upon tbe country, and all who chance to he members of it are indiscriminately regarded as veritable blood-suckers, the. aim and object of whose existence is to get out of the public purse as much money as possible for as little work as they- can do. To that gigantic hive in Wellington, where the huge a -my of secretaries, clerks, et he genus omne are to be seen swarming in in the morning and out in the evening, is owing— and fairly so — much of the ill feeling that has sprung up in the colony against the Civil Service. Members of Parliament from quiet out districts, on going to Wellington to attend to their sessional duties, are aetounded at the crowd of officers connected with the various departments that they see there, and on their return to their homes they impart to their constituents the astoulahment and wonder that they themselves have so naturally experienced, utterly unable as they are to understand what there is in the administration of the affairs of the colony that requires so vast a horde of servants. This is where i the pruning knife is required. It is the number of officers and not the salaries of all alike that should be reduced. Amalgamation of offices and the . abolition •of ■sinecures should form the basis of retrenchment in the Civil Service. Where ; work is to be done, employ a good man to do Ut and give him a fair rate of wage; where I there is little or nothing to do, don't encourage idleness by paying a man, be it ever so little, to spend his time in wondering how jhe is going to get through the day. Ministers •have it in their power to earn the goodwill, 'respect, and confidence of the people of the Icolony by dealing with this question of Civil Service reform in a thorough and statesmanlike manner.