RETRENCHMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 876, 12 September 1868, Page 2

RETRENCHMENT.

In turning over the Financial Statement for the present year, we are naturally led to seek for evidence of retrenchment in the public expenditure. The Government is carrying on what may be termed at the present time a bad business. The receipts do not come up to their expectations, while the expenses are running on almost beyend control. Common sense suggests that the only remedy for such diseases is economy, but common experience proves that the remedy is too often shirked. This is especially the case with Governments. The difficulties in the way of retrenchment are no doubt great, but no one is silly enough to suppose that retrenchment can always be easy. We are all familiar with the pleas put in by Governments on such occasions. We always expect to be told that salaries can't be reduced for fear of losing the services of efficient officers, and that pensions must continue to be paid for some equally conclusive reason. It is satisfactory to find that the present Government have made some efforts to economise. The Treasurer informs us that considerable savings have been made during the past year, and that there is a decrease in the amount of nearly every class of expenditure. ' This has been arrived at,' he sayß, c by a constant endeavour on the part of the Government during the recess to effect reductions and combinations of offices whenever and wherever this could be done, and public money could be saved, without real injury to the public service.' The Departments in which the greatest savings have been made are, the Postal Service, the Departments of Law and Justice, and the Native and Defence Departments. In the Postal Service, the savings amount to £42,178. This sum is the result of reductions in the steam mail services. £20,000 of it has been saved in consequence of the establishment of the Panama route, New Zealand having contributed less to tne cost of the Suez route since that establishment. The other steam mail services, as every one is aware, have been reduced in number, and we are now told that the inland mail services have also been clipped. The authorised expenditure for Postal services during the past financial year is £148,579, while the expenditure for the next is estimated at £106,401. j Reductions have been effected in the Law and Justice branch of the Civil Service by dispensing with a number of District Magistrates ; the decrease in expenditure amounting to £13,561. For last year, the expenditure on the Law and Justice of the colony amounted to £69,148; for the next, it is estimated at £55,587. The Native Department shows a reduction amounting to £11,160 ; the expenditure as authorised for last year being £23,544, while that for the next is estimated at £12,384. The expenditure on this department, as now estimated, will be lower than it has been for the last ten years. The following table will show how the outlay en Native purposes has varied from year to year : — 1808-.-)!) £11,109 18.VJ-G0 17,140 18«0-61 17,800 ISOI-G2 23.H72 186-2-iYi 5:!,412 18G:!-G4 52,r.ii.) 18G4-G5 fil),2!H lSlio-lifi 45VU7 18G6-67 30,7.31 18G7-G8 21,200 The Defence Office, 'as a separate Ministerial department,' is to be abolished, and steps have already been taken for the purpose. The Under Secretaryship in that office has feeen done away with. When the military operations at present t arried on have been brought to a close, the office of Defence Minister will also be abolished. The savings in the Militia and Volunteers are trifling, being only to the amount of £2,355. It has been found impracticable to effect any greiter reductions, those of last year having been so great as to reDder any further economy in that direction impossible. For last year, the 1 3bimates were £24,538 ; for the next, they are £22,183 The Treasurer points out a possibility of saving £6,216 on the Volunteers, by withholding the reduced capitation allowance should the Legislature think fit to sanction thatidea. The Armed Constat ulary Force has been reduced in cost and number to the lowest possible point; and having

j reached this point, the Government considers that the expense of that department should be submitted to as one of the burthens on the colony. Any unusual outlay that may be rendered necessary by disturbances onthe West Coast will have to be provided for specially. The remaining expenditure for, the Defence Office and the Armed Constabulary is now tor the first time, says Mr Ham., ' charged upon the ordinary revenue of the year instead of upon loan, so that although, there is an apparent increase under this head in the ordinary expenditure of the year, the cost of this service has in fact been brought down from £109,025 for 1867-68 to £47,497 for the present year.' The rest of the savings effected by the Ministry are these. On the Customs, a decrease of £2,690 — the expenditure for last year being £44,471, and for | next £41,781. Under the head of j Public Departments, we have a decrease of £5,704 — the expenditure for last year being .£43,567, and for next £37,863. On Public Domains, a decrease of £1,196 — the expenditure for lasc year being £4,076, and for next £2,880. Under the head of Miscellaneous, Special and Temporary, we have a decrease of £18,054 ; the expenditure for last year being £48,083 and present year £30,029. But against these savings, we have an increase of £6,277 on Permanent Charges ; the appropriation under this head for 1867-68 having been £314,268, while the estimates for 1868-69 are £320,542. The total i amount of savings for the year is £152,149. i The Treasurer brings this portion of his Statement to a close with a discussion on the comparative taxation of New Zealand and the mother country. Having regard to the greater rate of wages in the colony, the taxation is only nominally greater here than in Great Britain. It is £4 10s for each individual in the colony, and £3 0s 7d in the United Kingdom ; but as the average earnings of the labouring classes are 'more than twice what they are at home, 'the position of the colonist will compare favorably ■with that of the taxpayer in the United Kingdom.' But we should like to know on what ground the United Kingdom is selected for the purpose of comparison with New Zealand, in the matter of taxation. For what reason do men become colonists, if it is not to better their position? One of the most plausible arguments urged in favor of emigration is, that the emigrant escapes the burden of taxation which weighs so heavily upon him at home. If comparisons are to be made at all, tlfey can only be made between colonies. Let us compare taxation here "with taxation in Australia or North America or the Cape of Good Hope. If the position of the colonist in New Zealand will compare favorably with the position of his fellow colonists elsewhere, then he has nothing to grumble at. But as a matter of fact, his position is so unutterably bad in point of taxation that it cannot be compared -with the position of colonists in any other part of the world. It can be compared with, that of Englishmen only. The knowledge of such, a fact must operate largely to the prejudice of the colony, so far as immigration is con- j cerned ; and for that reason, if not for' any other, every effort should be made j to reduce our taxation within reasonable ! limits. Mr Hall points out what he considers a false and mischievous impression to the effect that heavy taxation is rarely coincident with national prosperity. This impression he repeats by saying that in Turkey and Russia the taxation is 8s 4d and 10s Id per head respectively, and yet those countries are far from being the most prosperous in the world ; -while in Holland, one of the most flourishing of States, the taxation is £2 lls 3d per head. The inference from this line of argument is, that taxation is an infallible index to the prosperity of a country ; so that the commercial wealth of a nation may be tested at once by means of a graduated taxation scale. It is certainly a misfortune that an impression of that kind is not universal. If it were, we might dwell with pride on the amount we individually contribute to the Treasury, and claim for New Zealand the distinction of being the happiest and most prosperous country in the world.

Queensland journalism has recently tinder-! gone what may be termed organic changes. The Daily Guardian, with its weekly issue, h»3 ceased to appear ; while the Courier has become the property of a Limited Company. A new journal, called the Egress, has been founded oa the ruins of the Guardian; and in a recent number it gives the following information with respect to the proprietary of the Courier .-—Capital, L 7200. in twelve shares of L6OO each :— The Hon. A. H. Palmer, M.L.A., grazier; W. H. Walsh, M. L.A., squatter j Geo. Kaff, merchant; Robert Ramsay, M.L.A., squatter; W. Baynes, butcher; Hon. E. I. C. Browne, solicitor; Hon. W. Thornton, collector of Customs ; T. B. Stephens, M.L.A., woolbroker.