POLITICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 999, 24 April 1891, Page 34

POLITICAL NOTES.

IVKDS. SURVEY, STOCK, AND NATIVE LANDS departments. Asa result of the late Cabinet meetings the Ministers have.definitely decided upon cartyin" into effect still further retrenchments In connection with the Lands, Survey, Stock, and Native Lands Departments. The changes proposed are more or less as follows : ______ In the Stock Department £2500 par annum is to be saved by the retirement of 10 inspectors and one clerk. The several districts are to be enlarged and supervised bv the inspectors remaining in the service. 'The Lands and Snrvoy Departments are to be amalgamated, and Mr H. J. H. Eliott, who is at present Under S' 3o ™*'**? f °s Lands and Minas, is to be placed at the head of the. Mines Department alone, as it 3 Under Se in et the' Lands and Survey Departments thirty-three officers are being dispensed with, and twelve, including five chief commissioners of Crown Lands, are to be transferred to new districts, to be decided upon later on. The Commissioners referred to are Messrs Marchant (Wellington), Humphries (Auckland), Baker (Christchurch), Mueller (Westland), and Spence Invercargill). By these changes the total saving in the two departments is estimated at £6500 per annum. The total savings in salary by the changes we have mentioned amount to £9OOO per annum, and the sum required for compensation to officers is about £4500. With reference to the Native Lands Department the Cabinet decided yesterday to retrench five of the present Judges, the proposed scheme being to divide, the North Island into circuits, each of which will be under the charge of one of the Judges remaining in the service. mr elliot’s case. The case of Mr Elliot, so long Undersecretary for Lands, is thus explained by the Government. The amalgamation of the Lands and Survey Departments having been determined upon, it became evident that the permanent head of the new department should be a surveyor ; and accordingly the Surveyor-General, Mr Percy Smith, was placed in that position. Next to him was Mr Barron, the Superintendent of Surveys. Naturally he takes second place in the new department. Mr Elliot, not being a surveyor, was not eligible for either. It became necessary to decide about his position. Mr Elliot, who held Mines as well as Uandß, is entitled to a pension oa retirement of £3OO a year. Had he been retired, some one would have had to be appointed to the under-Seeretaryship of Mines. The salary would have been over £250 a year. That, with Mr Elliot’s retiring pension, would havß brought up the cost of the new arrangement to over £550, the amount of Mr Elliot’s present salary. By the retention of Mr Elliot, therefore, as Mining Secretary, an economy is effected, and a good officer kept in the service. the modus operandi. For the retrenchments generally the Minister for Lands, we understand, consulted the heads of the Departments, informed them that the amalgamation had been determined upoD, and requested them to use their knowledge to make the eelectione for retrenchment ; informing them that they could do without injustice, the work which in other hands might press upon the wrong people. The list of officers to be dispensed with was thus drawn up, submitted to Cabinet, carefully considered there, and approved. ONE EFFECT. Whereas formerly both the Land and Survey Departments each kept its separate books with accountants, staff of clerks, and the rest, in future there will by virtue of the new arrangement be but one set between the two. Whenever the Minister wanted to do business he had to consult first the Under Secretary, then the Chief Surveyor, then both. Ail this is obviated by the new arrangement, which, during the short time it has been at work, has, we learn, already answered all expectations in a remarkable degree. THE FIELD STAFF. There is no reduction in the staff of field surveyors, so that the work of the surveys will not suffer. It will be benefited, on the contrary, according to our information,, as surveyors are being transferred from districts where there is little work to those in whioh there are arrears. Should the new Land Bill now under consideration pass, there will be an increase in the number of surveyors ; cf that the Minister is positive. HE ORGANISATION. Here is an instance. In the Invercargill District the land revenue had fallen considerably. There was a Receiver, whose duty it was to receive about £l7-000. Of this sum £6OOO is paid in two days in the year by the pastoral tenants, who generally pay regularly ; and £SOOO by the deferred payment settlers and other holders, on two other days; and they do not always pay up. It was thought that the chief clerk could do all this work, and therefore the Receiver was dispensed with. In some oases, the Receivers of Goldfields Revenue, and Land Revenue were separate officers. The Minister found that the cost of collection was 10 per cent, for both departments taken together, a proportion which no private firm would submit to, Hri therefore amalgamated the offices. STOCK DEPARTMENT. The Financial position is thus put by the Minister. The proceeds of the special Stock Tax are £17,000, the annual coat of the Stock Department is now, after the late reductions, £27,000 ; the Consolidated Revenue has to aid the Stock Tax by £IO,OOO a year. The ten Inspectors are to go, because, in the opinion of the department there are too many of them for the work. It is not desirable, the department holds, to pay Inenectors for doing the work of rabbit agents ; men at 103 a day on temporary service, who examine the rabbit districts and report to the Inspectors. These agents are not to bo done away with ; on the contrary, the Estimates will contain a provision for an increase of their number in the rabbit infested country.

GENERAL RESULT. The general result of the retrenchments in all the Departments, the Government feels, will produce an increase rather than a diminution of efficiency. For years their position in the Service was without any certain regulations about admissions. The conse. quenoe was that men were admitted very irregularly, and there grow up a system of taking on new men in Departments that were undermanned, instead of transferring officers from those that were overmanned. The necessity for retrenchment, compels adjustment. The retrenchment is, as one Minister informed us, the preliminary work wbioli must clear the way for the arrangement and classification under the Civil Service Bill which Ministers are getting drawn up. One effect of the retrenchment, it is added, will be that the Government will stand by their Estimates in every partioular. FAIR RENT BILL. A pnblio meeting in Dunedin petitioned the Government the other day to revive the Fair Rent Bill of former years, which applied only to the public estate, extend its application to private ho d ings, and get it passed through the Legislatnre. Ministers, we understand, have not made up their mind on the subject. The matter is under consideration still, as they feel that the grievances complained of are very real, that they represent a very wretched state of things, and that something ought to be done’to remedy them. FINANCE. The surplus for the past year is expected to be about £140,000, the expenditure of the year having exceeded the January estimates by a larger sum than was anticipated a few weeks ago. The taxation proposals have, we understand, not been before the Cabinet yet ; but they will be formulated by the Treasurer in a few days, and will, therefore, shortly come before the Cabinet. The success of the loan conversion was due chiefly, we understand, to the assistance of the Bank of England, whose directors were very liberal in their views on the subject. THE CROWN LANDS COMMISSIONERS. Ministers think that to change these officers from time to time is as neoessary as to change officers of other departments. As for the work they have to do, they are all survevors, and can deal with the work, therefore, of any district. The changes are as follows :—Mr Humphries goes from Auckland to Invercargill ; Mr Spence, from Invercargill, takes Mr Mueller’s place at Hokitiki, Mr Mueller going to Auckland ; Messrs Baker, of Christchurch, and March int, of Wellington, exchange. NATIVE LANDS COURT.

The Judges of the Native Lands Court who have received notice to retire from the Service at the end of the present month are —Messrs R. Trimble, W. G. Mair, J. S. Clendon, J. A. Wilson, and E. W. Puckey. The organisation of the Native Lands Court is to undergo a complete change, extensive reforms in the administration being contemplated. Five Judges have been retired, and it is proposed to place each of the remaining Judges over a district which he will travel on circuit. By this arrangement it is thought that each Judge will get acquainted with the tribal history and the manners and customs of the Natives in each particular district, and thus be enabled to secure the details of cases more easily and become conversant with the evidence more readily. It iB also intended to cat down expenses by reducing the number of clerks, interpreters, &e. The name of “ judge” is to be abolished, and the presiding officials are to be called “ Recorders.” The Native Minister proposes to ask for legislation to empower him, in place of the Chief Judge, to decide where and when the sittings of the Court shall be held, and a scheme is being devised to improve the system of re-hearing. A provision will be made so that proceedings upon re-hearing will be similar to appeals upon law points in the Supreme Court, and be confined to the particulars upon which the decision of the original judge is challenged.

At a Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday afternoon it was decided to summon Parliament together on Thursday, 11th of June.. The necessary visits to outlying districts oy the Ministers for Lands and Mines, make any earlier date out of the question. The reductions in the Department oi Justice were finally decided upon by the Cabinet, and effect will be given to them at onee some, indeed, have quietly been carried out already. The aim of the Minister in charge of the Department has. been to carry out his retrenchments with as little hardship to individuals as possible, and rather to make such re-arrangements as will prevent any laruie number of officers being dispensed with. The Hon Mr Reeves has happily been successful in his efforts, and although a few officers lose certain fees now received by them, there will be no drastic scheme involving the break-up of the Department. A considerable saving will be effected by placing the District Courts in the South Island under one Judge instead of two, as at present, but it is intended that the second Judge’s services shall be utilised in another capacity. Various re-arrangements and two or three reductions of the Magistracy will, take place, which will result, it is believed, iu. improved and more economical administration. In a few of the out districts it has been found impossible to throw on the local constables the work hitherto performed by separate officers. These latter, if they cannot be absorbed elsewhere, will necessarily retire. The total saving effected ■in salaries amounts to close upon L3OOQ per annum, but details of this amount are not available at present, as all the officers concerned have not yet been notified. In the expenditure, other than salaries, Mr Reeves sees his way to save about L2OOO, principally on such items as travelling expenses, expenses of witnesses and Coroner’s fees. The total saving proposed comes to a little under LSOOO. _ In addition to this sum rile Department is relieved from the heavy payment of LISOO per annum, which up to the end of last month was disbursed in the salaries paid to Mr W. B. Edwards and his clerk. No outsider will be appointed to the Kaiapoi M agistracy, rendered vacant by the death of Mr Caleb Whitefoord. The position will be taken by one of the existing R.M.’s, who will be transferred thither. In the course of a few months Mr Reeves believes that he will see his way to certain further economies, to be effected.without either dismissals or reductions of salaries,

In the Education Department there is not to be any one retrenchment of special impor~ tance, but by careful, though small, economies the total vote will be so kept down that it is estimated at a thousand or two under the vote of last year, instead of being larger, as might be expected, owing to the annual increase m the number of school children. . The expenditure on the Native schools has been strictly kept within limits, and Mr Reeves proposes to introduce a Bill giving the Education Department power to hand over Native schools to the management of Education Boards from time to time, and upon such terms as may be agreed upon between the Deportment and the Boards. If the Natives wish strongly to keep theirschools in the hands of the Central Department they might easily contribute to this, by making reserves of tribal lands as endowments for their schools. Very moderate reserves would largely decrease the cost of the Native schools. Seeing what large reserves Europeans have made, it would seem not unsonable that the Maoris should do something in the same direction.