The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3769, 14 August 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1883.

! To every objection that has been raised this session against the estimates wholly or in part, Ministers reply that it is impossible to reduce expenditure without impairing the public service. Backed by a large majority, such a statement is unanswerable. Mr i SAvanson, the member for Newton, mado a 5 bold effort to get the estimates sent back with a view to having them reduced by - „50,000, but tho attempt failed. In the ' session of 1881, when Mr Saunders, the then L member for Cheviot, moved_ that_ tho esti- ) mates be sent back, he carried his motion, for he was ably supported by Messrs Reader Wood. Ormond, Richardson, and others whoso administrative experience was equal ' to that of Ministers. They were men of weight in the country and of standing in tho ' House, and they had a following which L threatened the stability of the Cabinet. . Ministers had their revenge ; they reduced the estimates by 10 per cent, as directed, r but they took that amount off the salaries ' of the Civil Service without in any other t way decreasing the cost of administration. A more unpopular thing to do could not j have been conceived, but the Government threAV the blame on Mr Saunders and his i supporters, and so escaped the odium such a measure was calculated to bring upon them. I It was on the eve of a general election, and by cleverly shifting the responsibility of this economy on to the shoulders of others, ' Ministers were triumphantly returned, i Avhile the economists Avere left out in the v cold! The colony Avas promised, hoAvever, at the time that there should be not only an all round reduction in official salaries, but ' a reduction in the numbers employed by as far as possible an amalgamation of departb ments. The turn that the elections took enabled the Government to ignore those 1 promises, while it was found convenient enough to deduct ten per cent from salaries b of both under-paid and over-paid officers alike. This year the ten per cent reduction ' in salaries for the first threo months of 1881-82 is to be restored, and various I officers having threatened to leave the service if their salaries are not raised their i demands have been complied with. The Government, therefore, find it impossible to I effect any saving, and in pitiable accents the Colonial Treasurer asked, "AVhere, then, was a saving to be made r Colonel Trimble pointed out how it could be done, and it was by the amalgamation of departments. ' Ho urged that instead of the brutal mode of reducing salaries' all round by a certain percentage, which' he opposed on the broad ground he was stating. -Not { only had he advocated in that House the amalgamation of offices and the discharge of , useless officers; but, whenever he saw in his own district instances m which that » policy could be carried out, he went to the Minister of the particular department which l happened to be concerned and pointed these • < I i»noos out. When he saw not only m \- TciJ** hut in the surrounding his oavii distnuL,, *" .. j tn districts, that three persons- *™ telegraph, post, and railway doing that which could be done by one man he never failed to call the attention of Ministers' to it.'' That was the only true method of promoting economy, aud if. other

members had done the same there Avould noAV be much more economy in the public service than there Avas. After a long experience in mercantile life, he said the civil servants of the colony were not only not overpaid ; but there were far too many of them. This motion, if carried, Avould be inoperative. Nor did he think that a committee of the House could do any good. It might do harm, but it could not do much good. The Ministry themselves must carry out Civil-Service reform. He trusted they would do it. He had more confidence in the personal ability of Ministers than in that of any similar number of men aa'lio could be got together in the House, and he thought it would be better for the Cabinet to occupy a considerable portion of the recess in reorg-ani-dng the serA-ico. He hoped the motion would be Avithdrawn or negatived. Mr Swanson said that the honourable member for Taranaki bad expressed opinions in which he largely shared. The Ministry Averc the only persons avlio could make reductions. Not only had they tbe talents, but they alone had that knoAA'ledgo of tbe personnel of the sen-ice and that experience which were necessary in making reductions, either in the way of amalgamation or otherwise. But the work ought to be done at once. Ho would begin in that House and in the other Chamber. And he ventured to say that one-third of the gentlemen engaged in the big shop on the beach might bo dispensed with, with the result that the other two-thirds Avould do the Avork infinitely better. He, like tbe honorable member for Taranaki, had draAvn attention to cases where there might be reductions, but the result Avas quite contrary to what he had recommended. The fact Avas, tbe Ministry was afraid to discbarge some of these men. There were two classos Avhom it Avas found very difficult to get rid of: men who had fathers and mothers, or relations of some sort, Avho were too powerful to be offended; and men whose value in the labor-market Avas practically nil, and whom tho Ministry did not like to cast out. But the matter had to be faced in some way or other. The motion Avas by no means hostile. If it had not been suggested that he Avas afraid to bring down such a resolution in opposition to the Ministry, probably be Avould not have moved it. He was quite j Avilling, if tho House agreed, to withdraAV it, or he was equally AA'illing to go to a diA-ision. The motion did go to a diA*ision, and Avas lost by 43 to 34 A'otos.