RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1299, 14 January 1868, Page 4

RETRENCHMENT.

To tho Editor of the Bekax,d. £"', —I have read with much interest your articles on"Ketrenchment," in tho departments of (ho Provincial and General Governments. There u no itom mentioned in your article of to-day, which has not received that publin notice its importance deserves, and on which I de-im to make some remarks. I alludo to the " prospective liabilities, on the score of civil service pensions." If the :< Civil Service Act" had ooen framed by some Mr. Tita Barnaclo, it could scarcely havo been mnro happily devissd in the interests of the class of which ho is the respected representative. The Act provides an allowance of one-third, after 15 years' service; one-half, after 17 years ,- and an addition of one l-84th for each succeeding year, until a maximum of two-thirda of the salary received ig Of course the greater the salary tho greater tho pension ; and. without reflecting at all unkindly upon the official nature, I may safely eay any increase of salary, as promotive of such a result, is duly appreciated. It is evident that men eo situated havo a double interest in increased payments, and therefore I havo not been at all surprised to hear that a considerable amount of science bus been developed by certain G-eneral Government offieialu, part of whose salaries are chared against their Province, to havo such Salaries eo° pa id as to calculate their pension on the Provincial quota as well. A middle-class official in tho General Government employ, after 18 j ears' service, can retire on something like £250 per annum for life! Such a man in all probability, is not over forty.five—the verv primo of life-and likely enough to bo a regular visitant to the Treasury for many a long year to come. It is proverbially weary work waiting for a dead man's shoes; but the longevity which is the result of easy times, good puy, and an official mind at ease with itself and with the world, is peculiarly distressing to an impecunious Colonial Treasurer. I havo never been able to ascertain on what principle these pensions were given—for they are not bestowed for signal services rendered, or for accidents received while in the execution of duty. LeDffth of service is the only ground, be the official the ablest in

his department or the veriest ass that ever nibbed a quill oi spoiled official stationery. They are not granted in the Provincial Government departments ! although the are precisely similar, the eda-: cational status required as high, and the Bouroe of; salaries—the pocket of the taxpayer—the samo in; both cases. Such a state of things is clearly inequi-i table, and not the least of the evils thus produced ib the dissord town between the two sorvices, and the necessarily impaired condition of the Provincial staff from the persevering attempts continually being made, by " working the oracle." to get into the service which has balm in Gilead.

As t have said, I am at a loss to understand the principle on which the affair is conducted, or the 1 reaion why a distinction so palpably unjust is maintained. Is it because General Government officials aro mere improvident than others that the country has been so solicitous about their welfare and that of their families ? Is it that they are obliged to live up to their incomes in order to obtain admittance into fie hallowed circles graced by the colonial parvenu, or that they have to sustain the weighty dignity of a General Government appointment ? Or is that the temptation to i;ive little work for tho money received in tbat service iB so strong, that were not official virtue gently stimulated by the delightfr' prospect which the Civil Service Act holds out, there is no saying what might happen. We see officials as well educated, and as well hoi n, working harder, and during longer hours, in private establishments, who never dream of such a thing— whoso cmplcyera would consider themselves swindled by the bare mention of a pension, and rightly so. Why ? For the fervices the servant has received bis quid pro quo, and out of his own savings he mußt provide the contingencies of life. Tho bargain i 3 complete—the service given, the payment made—an! is a strictly equitable one. I submit that the same rule should prevail in tho Civil Service of the Colony. If an official cannct put anything past when ho gets £100 cr £500 a-year, how is he going to live on a pension of £250 ? Is the knowledge that, come weal or woo, there is a sure and certain hope of a perennial supply of funds from the Colonial chest, likely to induce habits of self-reliance, industry, and economy P

The fact is, the natural rosult of the system is to promote that improvidence and extravagance which is the bane of public and private life in this Colony. Two yean? more of commissariat expendi-ture-r-two years more of inordinata speculation and profuse social ettravagance—and New Zealand would have been hopelessly insolvent from end t? end. That the cr : s ; .s Ims come is a matter of thankfulness to every right-thinking man ; the wisdom we bave tardily acquired will have been cheaply bought by the iOßsea already incurred, if we are saved in all time to come from similar f.iliy. Thero has grown ■up in our midst an official caste, quietly but surely, until strong hy class|intE.rest, by selfishness, by compactness, it is potent everywhere, and most of all in in our Legislatures—men, the first article in whose political creed is that Government departments were expressly created by Providence in order to provide for themselves and relations —and whose nepotism is so exhaustive, that, failing the " big figure," tbey would complacently accept even a meJseDgcrahip for " a d'stant relative."

If the General Government is afra : d tbat its officials cannot he trusted to provide for the evil day, or these dependant upon them, let it deduct a reasonable* percentage of the salary (allowing compound interest of 5 per c3nt. on the amount withheld), to bo paid to the official by the Colonial Treasurer out of the Consolidated Fund on his retirement from the service. The doduc'ion would bo but elightly felt, at the period whon made, hut yet when the gross tot'il, with accumulated interest, was handed over, it would be a handsome and acceptable sum. To those of economical habits it would be ef ereat utility ; while, with regard to those who 1 had besn improvident, the bestowment of the "nest egg," made per force for them, would effectually shut up the ad tniMreeardiam appeal which that class of men are ever so ready to make. The recipient, in such a case, would he was no mere dependant on | public bounty—that he'wns only receiving his due — andmore than all, he would cease to be regarded in the oyes of his fellow-colonists, as too many officials now are—mere parasites upon tho body politic. Claims arising out of cases of distinguished service (in which a country's] h'?host wisdom is to be generous as well as just), and of accidents received in discharge of duty, might still be fairly left to the sense of equity and justice of the "General Assembly —oven though it bo " the m'jat corrupt Legislature undor Heaven," one of its own members bring the judge—a man singularly qualified to speak authoritatively on the point, as he has been more than suspected of kteptomania. I am no advocate for a penny-wise-pound-foob'sh system. Let us have a less numerous, but h'ghlytrained, well-paid and well-worlcci official staff, and let those men provide against the accidents of life out of their own income, as the taxpayer who maintains them has to do out of bis. But that the country in its present financial condition will long endure the existing official brood (many of whom now while away the distressing tedium of "from 10 to i" by discussing tho previous night's billiard play—tho last social scandal on the tapis—or caricaturing each other and their departments and political chiefs on tho office " blottirg pads," an innocent and highly intellectual pastime much affected by junior clerks, if report be true,) —is more than I can well believe. A few yea-s mora and New Zealand colonists will wake up to the fact that Civil Service annuities are fa>t becoming as serious an item in Colonial taxation as the • interest and sinking fund of another loan. Curiously enough, I have been led to compare the reward which Great Britain holds out to the defenders of her empire, and that which a colony, with a failing- revenuo, and otaggering under debt and taxation, bestows upon the well-paid members of its civil service. A prey-headed colonel in the British army, (with somo SO years' service), who has done duty to his country, mayhap tho woild around, and faced death and disease in many a form, ever keeps before his eyes as tho reward of all his troubles, the "good serrieo pension" of—£loo per annum ! He may have served his Queen, as I have been confidentially informed by one, " from h to Hackney," yet is more than blessed with not quite £2 per week. But mark the contrast in the comparison of Sword and Pen. A General Government middle claas official, after 18 years' bloodless strife in " memorandumn;iad" campaigns—whoso accustomed dose in the official chair (forty winks after lunch) has never been disturbed by a heartless colonial publio —can retire from the gaze of a grateful -.ountry with a small token of esteem and respect in the shape of—£2so per annum for the torm of his natural life.—Tours, &c, TAS.PATSB. January 10,1865.