'STUFFING' IN CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 10, 6 March 1902, Page 6

' STUFFING ' IN CHRISTCHURCH.

MORE FIGURES.

In our last issue — in reply to the charge that the public service is 1 stuffed ' in a disgraceful way with Catholics — we showed that out of 317 State employes (including the Police Department) in Christchurch only 33 are Catholic?, and that the amount which these draw is probably less than £1 in eveiy £15 locally paid out of the public puree under the headings of salaries and wages. The following returns, whioh refer to the Telephone Exchange, complete the figures for the local offices under the Telegraph Department :—: — Senior tel. clerk (21 years' service), £210 per annum ; 2 supervisors, Telephone Exchange, (each 0 years' service), £100 a year each ; 13 cadettes (2 of f) years' service, 1 of S. 2 of 7, 3 of 6, 2 of 5, 1 of 4, 2 of 3), each £80 a year — 2 of them are Catholics ; 2 cadettes (each 3 years' service), £70 a ytar each — one of them a Catholic ; 3 cadettes at tIHO a year each (1 of 2 years' service, 2 of 1 year's service) — none of them a Catholic ; 3 calottes', £50 a year each (each having one year's service in the classification list) — one of them a Catholic ; one assistant exchange clerk (1 t years' service), £150 a year — non-Catholic ; 3 junior clerks (1 of 11 years' service, 2of 10 years' service), £120 a year — all non-Catholic. Total number of employes, 28 ; total number of Catholics, 1, or one in seven. There is no Catholic officer in the Telephone Exchange. The total amount expended annually in salaries and wages is £2430, of which the four Catholics draw £280, or less than £1 in every £8 13s 7d paid out of the public funds under this head. Taking into account the figures previously published by up, we find that there are 13<j employes in the service of the Telegraph Department, Christchurch. Of these, only 13 — or a fraction more than one in every 11 — are Catholics. The total amount drawn by those 136 employes in wages and salaries is £15,771 per annum. Of this amount the baker's dozen of Catholics receive £171)5. or a little more than £1 in every £9 expended under this head. It will be remembered that Catholics are one in seven of the total populaof the Colony. Thus far we have dealt in cartful detail with .'A3 public servants (including the police force) in Christchurch, of whom only 37, or a fraction more than one in every 10, are Catholics. We are satisfied, so far as our inquiries have gone, that they draw less than £1 in erery £15 of the public moneys expended in salaries and wajjes in the Departments that we have dealt with. ADDINIiTON GOVERNMENT WOKKSHOI'S. Total number of employes. GOO. Of these, the Catholics number 51, or a little over one in 12 The manager (a Catholic) was recently transferred from Newmarket, has had 17 years' service, and draws a salary of £250 per annum. In the less important Government Workshops at Hillside (Dunedin), where the total number of employes is 430 to 432. the manager's salary is £'.500. We may here restate the figures already carefully verified, that there are only 3t (or doubtfully 35) Catholics in the Hillside Workshops — which (fives a ratio of less than one in twelve of the total employes ; that there is not one Catholic foreman or Catholic salaried official of any kind ; and that the average wages of the whole 34 or 33 Catholics employed is only 7s 3d per day. And yet the Hillside Workshops have been referred to as 'a Papist reserve ' and a particularly flagrant instance of the 'stuffing' of the public service with an outrageously high proportion of Catholics. LOCOMOTIVE BRANCH. Full details are not to hand, but so far as inquiries have gone they go to show that on Ul3 Christchurch section of the Railways (Hurunui to Waitaki) there are some 100 engine-drivers and firemen, of whom about 14 or 15 are Catholics. There are at present 40 casual hands in the railway goods sheds (Christchurch), of whom three only are Catholics. The number of

casuals employed varies considerably, and their wages are nominal. There are 1 ."5 permanent hands (incluling foreman, storeman, and clerks), of whom only two are Catholic-, one drawing Bs, the other 7s per day. One of them has .seen IS year 3 ' tervice in the department. The complete name-liht and p-uticulars as to length of service and wages (=.O far as wages are stated in the classification l'sts) are before us. There aro also six permanent shunters (changed occasionally) who are employed in connection with the sheds, and five Customs officers, not one of whom is a Catholic. There are 16 cropsiDg-keepers employed on the Christcburch section at the munificent wajre of (U per day. Six of these are Catholics, and their length of service ranges from 25 to 30 years. Some of those who are now classifijl cs "shunters' wore given on the list of April 1 last year as ' porters,' and some or all of the few who were then 'juniors' are probably now a step higher. But on the Christchurch Railway Station there are at pre-ent 41 of these 'shunters,' etc., of whom only five are Catholics (the complete name-list is before us).