RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9116, 26 July 1888, Page 6

RETRENCHMENT.

TO THE EDITOR. ' Sir,—At a time like the present, when on all sides one hears and reads of the pressing need of retrenchment, I was much struck by the utter absence of an attempt to reduce the Government outlay in some of our small up-country townships. Take Cambridge, Hamilton, and Te Aroha as instances. In each of these places we find two sets of Government officials, and two sets of Government buildings, one set running the Postoffice and the other the railway. In each of these townships one set of buildings would be quite sufficient, and the chief official in one of the branches done away with, by which means £1000 could easily be saved to the community at large. I have no doubt that there are many country townships all over New Zealand where a similar saving could be effected. Strange to say, that though the majority of the people are aware of and would acquiesce in the saving were all treated alike, the Government seem quite oblivious of the possibility of making a saving in this direction. But as showing how difficult it is to get the official mind out of a groove in which it has run for a time, I could mention a Postoffice on the railway line at which only one person's letters are received, and that person actually gets £20 per annum for having his own letters brought to his own door. The Post-office with the salary attached was originally got up for his own benefit by a wellknown retrenchment- ex-M.H.R. and has been continued ever since, though all other Post-offices at flag-stations on the line are only paid for at the rate of £5 per annum. —I am, etc., Over-taxed. Hamilton, July 24, 1888.