OUR FINANCIAL POSITION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 526, 5 June 1909, Page 3

OUR FINANCIAL POSITION.

s ' Sir,—As a taxpayer with:a Jarge.faniil* I feol ..that practically: , every householder will now, be asking, the question, "AVhero ■• does' : our- largo revejiue go ?" ■ We are at this moment perhaps, one of' tho most heavily-taxed people in'theieivilised .world, and yet wo have absolutely nothing to"show for this: taxation: It is '.a ■: weU-known . fact that nearly all ■ the lower' middlo class and 'many of tho'. middle' class are actually compelled to live :M rooms, i:o 7 to occupy one or two rooms in someone else s house, where perhaps three - or-four other, families already, reside—a truly disgusting state of. affairs.: ",\ .■':'.' '..■■' Some few; weeks ago our -Prime Minister 1 well knowing that the Treasury was empty announced a'terrific scheme of Government Service, retrenchment, which would save this i httlo Dominion £250,000 per anaum. • : Was 'he I iniearnest, think you?- Lot us =look round ■.among, tho various' , . Departments' '•'■ whidh have been^affectodby,this , .,hysterical : discharging of old /and valued : serrarits f Do- we find any high-salaried officials among the discharged officials ? Jam of opinion that-were a. public announcement: made-you''would find 'thjit. poor fellows '£150' per annum for work 1 , worth twice, or ..'three -.times' tho pay, are ;fche. n-.en who - ha vo. •■' been" 'discharged, but .certainly, not men receivine ■ a much higher salary.: ;,:.. '■■:","'■:■-.-: '..I presume that the Rublic Works .Depart- I rnent' is responsiblo for tho I expenditure of the largest proportion of;our. money, and vet if ive' review, the works that have been carried out by this 1 Department, the officers employed, thoroin,: and the- cost of. said works' : wo.'shall porbans- understand why-if is that our national debt is So .enormous "for so'small' a Dominion. -Is.it asoiyid and econohiica]' policy to. place an cn G ineerino;. cadet of .'some 23 ' years of ago in charge of a railway, con-.zt-riiction work with 100 men under him ? I saw near Flaxbburno 30' men erigaged at 8s por day making a side drain which occupied them about ono month, arid which was ulti.mately covered in by the bank it was supposed to protect.:', Take the- architectural branch of; the Deportment. Where will you find anything moro-unsatisfactory'in point of architecture than. the ■" recently-completed 'Public Trust office in this cit.v? . it is neither ■fish nor fowl.; '. And; ypt.' with this . glarinß' stnicturn in our,midst- we- aro'confronted with tho , fact that sy- railway] engineer hasbeen annointed district, engineer'in'.charge of all Duildirips in'.tho North Island.' Can the blind lead the blind?- Tho day for those oures Iβ over, and it bohovoj over; father of

a family to oarofnfly look into the manner in which our finances are being managed. Now that retrenchment is actually in the air, let us hope that for'a start this great Department, the Public Works, , will receive a drastic handling. It wants it badly, and I think our mutual friend Mr. Mackenzie is tho man for the work.—l am, etc., VOX-POPULI. June 2.