The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1886. RETRENCHMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1475, 4 March 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1886. RETRENCHMENT.

One of the commonest remedies suggested for the removal of the present depression is retrenchment. There are very few members who are not in favor of it; no Government have undertaken the management of the affairs of the colony within the memory of the oldest inhabitant that were not going to cut down the Civil Service until they goi into power, but, henceforward they became as silent as the grave on the subject, We ai§6oU that Major Atkinson contemplated making some alteraiions when he was ousted from office, and that ho had actually prepared a scheme, but that he hid it away so that his successors would not be be able to profit by his investigations. If this itrue, and he has almost admitted it himself, it was, to say the least of it, a mean trick. J he country had paid him for, doing its work, he owed it to the people-lhat he should give his successor the benefit of the knowledge he had , gained, and to decline to do so was a trick unworthy of the position he occupied. If it became necessary for an employer to dismiss an employee, he would regard it as the acme of mean ness on the part of the dismissed servant to refuse to give up any special information be might possess, on anything relating to bis business. Yet here is a man who would like to pose as a statesman guilty of an action which nine out of every ten clerks in the colony would blush at being accused of. That, however, is not the point. Sir Julius Vogel came into power, and one of the first things be promised to do was to amalgamate certain offices, and retrench on all sides, and for a time poor unfortunate Civil Servants Were shaking

in their hoots at the terrible prospect of getting a perpetnal holiday. The poor unfortunate wretches did not pass a comfortable night for months, and memos, addressed to them were opened with ns much fear and trembling as an Irish landlord would a suspicious looking packet. To these no doubt it was n great rein fto read the other day what Sir du'ius V.-g-l said on the subject in Auckland when he characterised the retrenchment cry as “ a sham.” It is long since Sir Julius Vogel said anything more in accordance with our own views on the subject. We have for a long time regarded this cry as “ a sham ” got up by shallow-minded political windbegs for the purpose of securing popularity. We have not a friend in the Civil Service ; we have no interest whatsoever in any .me connected with it, hut we have listened to the cry of retrenchment till it has become nauseating, and the fact that nothing has been done in effecting any reduc;ion appears to us to go a long way towards convincing most people that there is very little room for it. We have heard of Commissioners going about from office to office with (he view of finding out where thereductinns could be made, but so far there has been no result. The fact is, new departments have been created, notably those ol Agriculture and Mines, and the Ci\il Service has thus increased instead of being reduced. To look upon the subject from a practical point of view, it appears to us that the position is this ; The population of the colony is increasing, and as a natural consequence so is the work, It is sheer nonsense to talk about reducing the workmen as the work increases. At Christchurch last Friday evening Mr Garrick made a great deal of this. He said that the portion of the Civil Service connected with the administration of justice was a crying disgrace to the colony, A reporter of the Lyttelton Times waited on Mr T. 8. Weston—erstwhile judge of the District Court, a member of the House of RepresentaC.ves, and now practising as a barrister in Christchurch —with a view of ascertaining his opinion on the subject. His varied experience, of course, entitled him to be regarded as an authority on the subject, ani his opinion was that the judges were under-paid and over-wt rked, and that all Court officers got small salaries. He gave many instances where judges were unable to deal with cases, and had to postpone them, to the groat inconvenience of litigants, through having too ranch to do, and asserted that instead of (he Department being overofficered the staff was scarcely ad.quate to do the work. He also added that very shortly the Civil Service would be composed of men without character or ability, as no father would care to get his son into it, and instanced the fact that many of the best men have left and joined the Civil Service of other colonies where they get better paid. We shall not discuss the subject of salaries. They may or may not be sufficiently remunerated for the amount of woik done, but it is evident that the Service is not over-paid. We are convinced that any reduction that could possibly be made in the Civil Service would be so insignificant that it is not worth while to speak about it, and it wou'd not assist in the slightest degree to remove depression. What is ruining the colony is that every penny we make in it goes to foreign countries. First the interest on our national debt is about £1,500,000, the interest on our private indebtedness is as much more, the balance of trade against us is about another millions, and the money which absentees, shareholders in banks and other companies take away from us yearly may be set down at pretty close on a million also. We have therefore about £5,000,000 to send to foreign countries yearly, and so long as we continue doing that we cannot be prosperous. If the shallowminded empty-headed wind-bags who rave about the Civil Service would only think about this fearful annual drain on our pockets, and try So find a means of regulating our affairs to avert it as much as possible they would he doing some good, Tiie miserable pittance which might be saved through retrenchment would not be felt, nor can anything else do any good so long as we cannot produce enough in this colony to pay our wav.