GOVERNMENT REIRENCHMEST.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1024, 15 March 1884, Page 3

GOVERNMENT REIRENCHMEST.

(To the Editor.)

Sib, — I notice with pl> asure that the Hon, Mr Mitchelson seems d<'trrinine*l to do awny with a number of those useless mortals who liavc, for a number of years p;ist, been in tho receipt of large salaries for simply helping each olher to do nothing; nnd while he i? at present engaged in retrenching in a large way, I would like to direct his attention to a smnll matter that I think admits of enquiry. I allude to the great concession made to railway employees when travelling by rail. For instance, if one of the surfacemen wished to go from Lawrence to Dunedin, it would cost him perhaps two or three shillings ; whereas it would co^t me, travelling secondclass, 7s or Bs. Wow, ns the employees on th-< railway number, with their wives and families some hundred?, if not thousands, and as the most of them manage to make seveial excursions .yearly; theso concessions that I have referred to mean a loss to the Department. Why should this be ? Are the rnilw.iv employees considered to be underpaid, and ;iro these conces9ions'intended to bo equivalent to the higher rate of wages they phould be receiving. I cannot ans-wer that question. Acain, if when in town I take it into my head to bring up a bag of sugar or a box of ten— (I don't often do this ; for. I believe in supporting local institutions, and think that a man who earns his money in a district, and' who sends it out to purchase the goods he can obtain at home, eveu supposing they cost n trifle more, locally, has got a tinge of "meanness" in his constitution, tbe possession of which I do not envy him.) To resume : If, as I have said, I foci disposed to bring up any of the articles named, I am met at the Dune, din platform by a conrtcous young gentle, man who produces a book nnd writes a couple of words, "Excess luggage," for which I have to pay two or more shillings, as the case may be; whereas the more fivored individuals referred to ha?e their groceries carried free, or at a nominal cost. Why should this be? I stop. This let! or is already too long ; I may refer to the subject agaiD.— l aiDj'&c, Ketubnohmisnt.