IMPORTANT RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 993, 13 March 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

IMPORTANT RETRENCHMENT.

STARTLING REDUCTIONS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE. fIE A SAVING OF £23,700 A YEAR. We have authority for stating that very important reductions are about to ba made in the Public Services of the Colony by the following officers being retired : Public Works Department.—Consult-ing-Engineer Blackett, four district and resident engineers, eleven assistantengineers and draughtsmen, twenty inspectors, and ten clerks (-, ermanent and tempo, ary), representing a saving of about £6OOO per annum Defence Department. The Commander in-Chief, three Commanders of Districts, viz,, Wellington, New Plymouth and Auckland, several captains of Permanent Militia, storekeepers aud others, the saving being L3OOO a year. Ia addition to these savings another L 12,000 will be saved in con ection with defence works. Hitherto the d fence works done by prisoners have been charged to gaols. This will be done away with. Total saving in Defence Department, L 15,000. Police Department— -Inspectors J. B. Thomson, T. Moore, A. Thompson, W. Kiley and S. Goodall, to be retired, also Mr Fox, Chief Clerk, the saving being— Salaries, L 2,225 ; travelling allowances and incidental expenses, LSOO. Total, L 2,725.

In the case of Consulting-Engineer

Blackett, his salary is to come iff the Public Works Estimates, and if his seivices are retained they must in future be charged to the Agent-General’s Department. These reductions will, we understand, take effect by the 31st of March, the end of the financial year, the necessary compensations being paid out of unauthorised expenditure. The salaries will, of course, not appear in next year’s Estimates