i&aranaki plimJd, TTESDAY, JL'LY 27, lflW. THE SPRING CLEANING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 27 July 1909, Page 2

Taranaki Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1909. THE SPRING CLEANING.

Till' fiiolts ol thf GoMTIIUU'Ut ill sweeping the Civil Sen ice oi unneress.iry oliichils aie ;is ludicrous as :\ sca\en«rei riulc\i\oui in;; to iciiiovc ilust tiiid cobwebs from a nejrleeted dia\vin<i - room l»y means of a lon^-hamlleil shuxi'l and a yard broom. Its wild, drastic methods aie eausiii'r no end of annoyance, and the country before \ery loiifj- will --uddenly awaken to the fact that its lunw, instead of b<Mii<r in older, i** mi disfigured and broken th.it it is utterly ashamed or it. Already departments Imve been crippled h\ the loiiu shovel methods, and others me in dan<rer ol a similar late. If the people assume the demeanour of an irate housewile, who suddenly realises the damage that has been done in her drawing room by the man with the heavy tools, the Government will only have itself to blame. The latent phase of the drastic sweeping is associated with the Stamp Department. Sir Joseph Ward, some time a<ro, said he had in view a scheme of alterations in the Stamp Duty Department, which would effect a very large saving indeed jn the cost of its administration. The main lines of the scheme were that the deceased persons' estates work should pass wholly away from the Stamp Office to the La ml and Income Tax Assessment Department, and that deceased accounts should be sent to Wellington, where the values of the estates should be determined and the duties assessed. The view Sir -Joseph Ward took was that death duties were, after all, a tax, and the proper department to assess and collect this tax was the Tax Department. He also intimated that the Stamp Office was not the proper office for the cieation and custody of stamps — both these functions properly belonging to the Post Office— and contended that part of the work should be transferred to the lost Office The scheme, as far as stamping of deeds was concerned, involved these arrangements: that the deed or other instrument should be assessed by one office, and a Post Office official would affix and cancel the requisite stamp. It was hoped that these two changes would enable the Government to close the Stamp Offices in all centres except Wellington, and effect a saving of something like £11,000 per annum The work of assessment of stamp duties on deeds and other instruments would be done by district land registrars, as was the case in the smaller centres, and the work ii> connection with the deceased estates would be sent to Wellington. Voices of protest have been raised against the scheme by stock brokers and solicitors from one end of the dominion to the other. The legal practitioners contend that the proposed changes will mean embarrassing delays, cause great inconvenience to solicitors, generally increase the difficulties of peisons who are called on to administer the estates, and put the public to considerable expense. The stock brokers say that in conducting their business quick dispatch is essential, and that any delay in getting transfers assessed for duty and stamped might prove of serious consequence to themselves and their clients. Dr. Findlay recently said that if the proposed economies could be effected, tke profession and the public could faiily be asked to make certain sacrifices. Uitt if those sacrifices more than outweighed the economies, then it would be a matter j for reconsideration. He recog- j vised that the change did involve inconvenience, and admitted that unless the proposed economies \ were substantial there was good reason for asking the Cabinet to j reconsider the change. This is not what the people expected retrenchment to involve, and what is more, this is not what they will submit to. It practically means a slight reduction in taxation on the one hand and the payment of j heavy charges that the taxation used to pay for on the other. Dr. Findlay was present at the meeting of Cabinet when the scheme was approved of, and is as much to blame for it as anyone in the Ministry. The Government, when attacked by Opposition members in regard to its policy of retrenchment, invariably replies: "These are the very proposals which you considered to be so necessary ; theie's no pleasing some people." It i> not the policy of retrenchme nt that we complain of; it is t ho method of retrenchment. Already some of the departments are so under-staffed that they are unable to efficiently discharge their duties, and this inefficiency will yet cost the country thousands of pounds. If the Government does not cease its heavy broom tactics ia spring cleaning, and consider more the pockets of the people and the effectiveness of the departments, it will have to pay dearly for its shortsightedness and mismanagement.