The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1881. That Reduction Commission.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 337, 6 May 1881, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1881. That Reduction Commission.

TOWN EDITION. [.lssued at 4.30 p. m. ]

From time to time we receive from various portions of the colony stories of the Seed and Batkin Commission, tending solely to the holding up of those gentlemen and their mission to ridicule. It is well known that there are certain portions of the New Zealand press who make it a rule to seize on every available opportunity to “ point ” at the failings of the present Government. Several of these “yarns” which have been going the rounds of the papers, show but too plainly that they owe their origin to this feeling, and, as such, doubtless receive the amount of attention merited at the hands of the readers. An exception to this rule, however, from the columns of the Westport limes is as follows : Messrs Seed and Batkin, the “ Retrenchment Commissioners,” arrived in Westport by the p.s. Charles Edward on Tuesday morning, and have since inspected the Government offices in town. They visited the Cape Foulwind lighthouse on Wednesday. At first glance we thought the Times had been perpetrating a joke at the expense of the Commissioners, but these is an air of naive simplicity and truth about the statement that we cannot but accept it as written in good faith. This adopted, and we have another instance of the way in which the public funds are being frittered away by a tinsel and pasteboard system in the management of the affairs of the colony. These Commissions and their reports appear very plausible when on paper, but the real character of the work effected by them and the benefit reaped by the county will not bear examination. What reasons were they that prompted the visit of the Commissioners to the Cape Foulwind lighthouse? Their business, pur et simple , is enquiring into what reductions in the salaries of the already too poorly recompensed civil servants can be affected; surely the spirit actuating their call at this lighthouse could not have been this. Ten per cent, knocked off the salary of the poor devil who holds this Government appointment has brought that sufficiently low. What then could have been their motive ? We can only regard it that curiosity, and a desire to extend the length of the labors of the Commission actuated their movements. They are loth to leave the carcass until they have removed every shred of flesh Theirs is not the blame; we are all of us unwilling to let a “good thing” out of our grasp; the Civil Service Reduction Commission are but human; the Ministry but assine.