The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1888. CARRYING IT TOO FAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1784, 8 March 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1888. CARRYING IT TOO FAR.

Retrenchment may be — nay, is — a very necessary and prudent thing whenever it is discovered that expenditure is beginning to show an excess over revenue, and Parliament correctly interpreted the voice of the country when a policy of cutting the coat according to the cloth was last session resolved upon. Ministers, as the Executive of the will of Parliament and the people have therefore no choice but to pursue the path of rigid economy, and are only doing what is right, and what was expected of them m dispensing with officers and services which are not absolutely necessary, and io reducing pay and allowances whereever the rate paid is m excess of market value, or more than the public exchequer can reasonably be expected to continue to afford yet, sound as the retrenchment policy undoubtedly is, there is such a thing as the possibility of carrying it too far, and it appears to us that the Hon Mr Fergus has erred m that direction m connection with the volunteer force. It has been announced that the capitation will, m the case of adult volunteers, be forthwith cut down from £i to 30s per head, and m the case of cadets to ihe miserable figure of 5s — even this paltry allowance to cease after the present year. Ofj course, it was not to be expected, nor would it have been asked for a moment that the volunteer force should escape altogether from sharing m the general retrenchment which isbeing carried on ail round m all departments of the public service, but so sweeping a reduction is out of harmony with what is being done m other directions, and is altogether beyond the mark of fairness. Indeed, it is said that it must necessarily lead to the breaking up of a good many corps for even, as it now is, with the capitation at there is m many cases not only no margin for contingencies, but veiy considerable contributions have to be made by officers and others towards the cost of keeping rifle ranges and drill-sheds In order, the keeping up of regimental bands, etc., etc., to say nothing of the considerable expenditure m the purchase of ammunition by those who qualify themselves to be of real service as marksmen by keeping up their rifleshooting practice. All the same for that, a reasonable rate of reduction would have been cheerfully submi-ted to— say, for instance, to £2 per head for adults — but this sudden withdrawal of one-half the old rate of pay is felt to be altogether too much. And the time for weakening the numerical strength of the Force, and inducing a general feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction among our citizen soldiery, when all the military powers of the world are beating to quarters, and a general war seems only avertible by a miracle, is so singularly inopportune, that we fancy Mr Fergus will find that he has done anything but a popular thing m issuing his recent /tat, and we hope that on further thinking it over better counsels will prevail, and that a less radical alteration m the rate of volunteer capitation will even yet be made than that which has been announced as intended.