South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1890.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6265, 11 July 1890, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1890.

The Premier was waited upon a few days ago, in Lis capacity of Colonial Treasurer, by a deputation who urged upon him the necessity of making if possible some reduction in the estimates, and a round sum of £50,000 was mentioned as the amount with which the deputation would be satisfied. The Premier practically declared that he could not undertake to make any such reduction, and in making this declaration he was only repeating the assertion made in bis Financial Statement, that the Government “ are convinced that it is impossible to make any further appreciable reduction in the public expenditure, unless we are prepared to largely curtail the public conveniences which are now enjoyed, and the absence of which would be felt as hardships.” Yet in the same document the Treasurer proposes increases in salaries of post and telegraph officers, a total of £5271 for this year, of which £BOO goes to officers whose salaries are £2OO a year and upwards. A straw shows which way the wind blows, and this addition of £BOO to the salaries of officers who already have incomes above the average of those who provide the money, shows that the civil service is being too kindly looked after. Instead of increasing the higher salaries the needs of the colony require their reduction. Substantial reductions might be made in many of the salaries now paid to men who have very little, to do beyond purely routine work, and whose places could be quite as well filled by men who are now receiving half their pay. The public servants ought to be content with less than persons in private employment, because the tradi tions of the service make a billet, once obtained, a permanency.

An ingenious Aucklander, complaining of the excessive salaries of public officers, suggests how they came to grow so greatly as they have done since 1856, when the best men in tbe colony were content with much smaller pay than inferior men are now receiving. This is his parable ; —‘ybnes, of the New Zealand Civil Service, thinks that as Brown, filling a similar position in Victoria, has £IOO a year more salary than himself, he (Jones) is not fairly treated ; a friend champions his cause, and he gets an increase. Next year Brown, in Victoria, gets a friend to suggest that if New Zealand, with its heavy burden of debt, its diminishing population, its low prices of the necessaries of life, and, not least, its enjoyable climate, pays Jones so much, surely Victoria should pay Brown a higher salary. It thus becomes a case of beggar my neighbour.”