The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 652, 28 May 1864, Page 13

The Otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MAY 28.

If reliance can be placed on Ministerial promises, the economical reforms which the Provincial Secretary hinted at on Wednesday evening will receive general approbation. It is indeed to he hoped that the advent of the present Executive will inaugurate a more efficient and less costly civil service. The expenses of the various departments have gradually been

permitted to increase until the cost has far exceeded the value of any advantages which h ave accrued, and are greatly in excess of the fair proportion such charges should bear to the revenue. Ever since the gold discoveries necessitated extensive governmental arrangements to meet the requirements of the Province, the cost of administering the Government has continued to increase year after year until it has, in fact, outgrown the limits of all reasonable calculation. A spirit of mixed extravagance and petty economy has characterised the arrangements of the Provincial Government. In one direction a penny-wise and pound-foolish system of cheese-paring has supplied the place of that strict economy which looks rather to receiving full value for i(s expenditure than to the simple [ reduction of it, without regard to. results. Whilst in many directions this mock economy has been practised, to the detriment of the public service, in others, the opposite extreme has been reached. Departments have been created on a scale ridiculously large and expensive for the work allotted to them, and there has been a want of that consolidation and organisation so essential to the efficient carrying out of public works. The Provincial Secretary, in his remarks, mentioned the department of the Provincial Engineer's as one that might be dispensed with, and referred also to the cost of the Roads Department as admitting of considerable reduction. The public works of this Province engage no less than three distinct departments, each under a highly paid chief, and the usual number of highly paid subordinates. There is the Provincial Engineer's Department, the Roads and Bridges Department, and the Department of the Marine Engineers ; and to these we may add that ot the Chief Surveyor, under whose superintendence certain works not exactly coming within his duty, are being carried out. We cannot see why these various departments — with the exception of the Survey — should not be incorporated into one ; we are certain that under such circumstances a large saving could be effected. We may remark, en passant, that after the Provincial Engineer's Department was established, the Government began to curtail its scope — taking now one sort of work out of its hands, and then another, until scarcely anything remains for the Provincial Engineer to do ; and now they coolly say — disband his department. In other branches of the Civil service there is am pip room for sweeping economical reform, and as the Government fully recognise the fact, it is to be hoped it will be carried out. We are glad that the Provincial Secretary is alive to the importance of reducing the strength of the Departments rather than the salaries of officials. If the Government desire.to have their work performed efficiently they must pay well for it — far better one really efficient official at a high salary than two incompetent ones at half the price. It is satisfactory to find that the result of the investigations by the present Executive, of the affairs of the Province fully establish the wisdom of the course adopted by the Council with respect to the Estimates. The Government find that without any serious interruption in public works, the revenue for the next six months will meet the expenditure. True the non-realisation of the £500,000 loan still remains as an obstacle, but it is satisfactory to know that the Provincial liability will not be increased. . The throwing upon the local Market the two small loans, will, we hope, be attended with the best results. On the whole, the short statement of the Provincial Secretory will have done much to allay alarm and restore confidence — a feeling which we hope the financial programme of the Treasurer will confirm.

In another column we publish the letter of our Special Reporter at the Wakamarina Diggings. It surely needs little for us to say by the way of enforcing on the minds of the miners the worse than folly of any further rush to that locality. Our worst predictions have been fully verified; and doubtless there are hundreds of men now in Merlborough who wish they had paid more attention to our warnings. The condition of the Marlborough diggings

may be briefly summed up:— The only gold producing stream is flooded; no other ground has been opened ; the winter rainc have set in ; the country is almost a dense forest; and food is at famine prices. Truly a deplorable picture, but one we hope that will put an end to any further exodus from this Province. We commend our Correspondent's Letter to the careful perusal of our readers.