The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1891.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9030, 12 March 1891, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1891.

If has been the ambition, perhaps laudable in its way, of successive Premiers to attempt reform in tho Civil Service, and to show that they are in earnest they commenco by making sweeping retrenchments. A largo number of salaried officers are paid compensation and their services dispensed with ; and a boast is made by the Government in power that they have succeeded in reducing the amount paid to the Civil Service by so many thousands of pounds. Various departments in the following year's estimates show that considerable reductions have been made, and the Premier and his colleagues '' crow " with delight as they dilate on the savings they have effected. Tho sums usually paid for compensation come to a very largeainount, much more than the year's saving, and tho officers dismissed with compensation somehow find their way back into Government positions. And why not, when they are lit for nothing else than a " Government billet ? ' This was the case when the Atkinson Government " retrenched," and we have no doubt "the same process will be gone through by the present Ministry. Now, if tor Ballance could provide for those officers who are dispensed with — set them to i'orm a " village settlement " for instance, so that thoy could grow their own cabbages, and live for the future a country life— he would succeed in doing what no Premier has yet accomplished; but merely to create an additional number of hangers on to the Government, who, after spending (heir cowpecßatioß money in Wellington,

quietly drop one by one into perhaps better <r billets," is certainly not economy. In the proposed retrenchments and changes to be made wo notice that New Plymouth, as usual, is to be sacrificed for Wanganui's gain. Wo may expect to hear of further changes in this direction, for the members of the present Ministry, when in Opposition, never had a good word for New Plymouth, and now they are in power it is not very likely thero will bo any change in their views towards the place. It would evidently seem so, for whilst there has been some heavy pruning going on in New Plymouth, Wanganui, the town the Premier represents, has not only apparently been untouched, but additional ollices have actually been created there.