RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8316, 24 July 1890, Page 3

RETRENCHMENT.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —It appears that a suggestion I tag been made by a member of the House, that a Royal Commission should be appointed to consider and report on this question. Oa several occasions during the last thirty-five years a similar course has been adopted, and the result has almost invariably been, not the lessening the burden of the taxpayer, but rather the increasing of the emoluments and privileges of the officials. A like result may be anticipated in this case, probably is intended by the mover. " Without hardship to the officials" is the term suggested. Well, how can any serious retrenchment be made without, on the one hand, reducing some pf the high salaries, and on the other, reducing the number of the lower paid, by discharge. Will the high official not assert that taking a hundred or two off his salary is inflicting hardship on him? Will the lower paid, the rank and file of the official army, not cry out for the hardship of being put out ? We may depend on it, no tangible retrenchment is possible with the consent of the high mandarins at Wellington. If it is to be had at all, it will have to be without their sanction, and in spite of their opposition. When the people of the colony make up their minds that their burdens must and shall be diminished, they will have to set about it without waiting for the consent of the official magnates. No temporising, or half measures, will do it. The howling that would ensue would be appalling, but it would have to be faced. lam, etc., F.C.