RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9099, 6 July 1888, Page 5

RETRENCHMENT.

A SAVING OF THREE HUNDRED

THOUSAND POUNDS.

MR. WITHY'S RESOLUTION.

A WELLINGTON OPINION.

[BY TELEGRAPH.SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. The Retrenchment Party consider that with the concessions they have obtained from the Premier, the net result will be to enable him to save £300,000 in all—the objective point which he had placed before himself before meeting Parliament, but found circumstances too strong for him singlehanded.

Mr. Goldie has received a good deal of useful information concerning certain high officials' salaries from the South, and also some information from the Auckland Financial Reform Association concerning the proposed reductions in the Defence and Education Departments. When Mr. Withy's resolution comes to be further debated, tomorrow, this information will be useful. Mr. Monk and Sir G. Grey will probably speak then, and utilise the facts collected. The Post is considerably exercised over Mr. Withy's motion, which it says : " Will cause consternation in many households." It remarks as follows:—"At first sight, Mr. Withy's motion, which was discussed in the House yesterday and accepted by the Premier, appears a very harmless and rather unmeaning one. No one can seriously dispute the desirableness of reducing the public expenditure by £100,000. There cannot be the slightest danger of the Government saving too much, if it acts fairly and justly towards all concerned. Mr. Withy's motion, however, is by no means so harmless or innocent as it looks. It covers, if it does not embody, an understanding as to the interpretation of possibilities in the matter, which is of the most important character. It is, in fact, intended to extend the application of retrenchment to all recipients of public money. Let the working men, whether their work be manual cr clerical, whose earnings are now to be attacked, remember also that the Government which is going to retrench them in drastic fashion, is the same Administration which absolutely refuses to reduce the property tax exemption to a sum which, according to an official return, would bring in an additional £80,000 a-year, which sum would render the reduction of small salaries and wages unnecessary. It is also the Government which resolutely refuses to tax the £2,800,000 a-year of private incomes above £150 a-year accruing from sources not touched by the property tax."