The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3907, 28 January 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1884.

As the session approaches, as the last meeting of the present Parliament draws nigh, the Government remember the pledges of 1879. The reform of the Civil Service, always a standing dish in tho programme of every succeeding Ministry, is, we hear, about this period, in tho life of a Parliament "being steadily proceeded with." We shall hear more of economical reforms next session, and all through the forthcoming general elections "Reform" will be the cry of Ministerial and Opposition candidates alike. The more cry, in all probability, the less wool there will be. Major Atkinson has more than once declared that reductions in the Civil Service are impossible, and in ISBO he taunted Mr Ormond with declining a seat in the Cabinet because of the difficulties surrounding "reform." " Come and do it yourself," said Major Athinson, and perhaps Mr Ormond is about the only man who has held a public position who not only would be willing but be able to do it. Unfortunately the general elections of 1881 left all the able men out in the cold, and a Parliament of Nobodies assembled to do whatever the Government said should be done. The financial condition of the colony is snch at the present time, however, that even the Treasurer can no longer disguise from himself the fact that, distasteful as it may be, economical intentions must at least be a feature on any political platform. :And it is not surprising that the Wellington correspondent of the New Zealand Herald hears that steady progress is: being made with the Civil Service re-organisation. Some of the Ministers, we are told, are going into the matter with great vigour and thoroughness, and this question, according to present plans, is to be one of tho cardinal points of the Ministerial policy next session. The correspondent believes that strenuous efforts will be made to have this new programme quite ready by tho time Parliament meets. It is thought that a retrenchment scheme will be announced that will embrace a sufficiently wide area as at least to meet the deficit expected in the year's revenue. Thus it may be found practicable to avoid increased taxation for next year. But there is still the fear that another farthing on the property tax willhavo lobe imposed, bringing it to its old figure of 1880 of one penny in the pound. The correspondent lias reason to suspect that an important olifitig-e in tli© arrangements of one department is under earnest consideration, and will be shortly announced. Taking their correspondent's letter as the text of a leading article, the New' Zealand Herald says: :—"Major Atkinson has hitherto shown that he possessed two ideas with respect to a deficit. The first was, to choke it by floating Treasury bills, which meant that it was to be made good out of borrowed money; and the next was to impose additional taxation. Both these devices are now pretty well exhausted, greatly to Major Atkinson's sorrow. A farthing may be put on the Property-tax, but more than that cannot be borne. In the Customs we are taxed up to the highest pitch, and we doubt whether moro revenue could not be obtained on some classes of goods if the rates wore reduced. But the deficit is too big to be choked by mere cheeseparing economics, and as for the trick of not spending the monies that have been voted by Parliament, that is simply a species of dishonesty for which Ministers-deserve-no credit nt all. They must save by economising" in the administration, and not merely by discharging an official here and there. Wo cannot help thinking that a considerable saving might be made in the Education Department, the administration of .which will pfflbabty next year cost half a; million. The money is spent by Boards 1, .wh0 have nothing to do with the raising of it, who simply inform the Government what sum they will require, those Boards being under constant pressure to raise salaries and. tft spond more money, and having no sufficient motive to economise. They must give Mr A or Mr B so many hundreds a year, because the gentleman holding a corresponding situation in Otago or Canterbury has that sum. ' If will take a good deal of courage to face a reconstruction of the Education Department of tho country ; but the work will have to be dono sooner or later;

Tun School o omiv election takes place in the districr s chooi-room at 3 o'ejook. Jnmo9t towns these excite great interest, and gradually even in Napier they are beginning to have a portion of the interest taken in them that their impoi-tanco deserves. - In: a largo centre of population tho district school be* comes an institution effecting for good or evil a very large majority of tho younger members of sooiety, and through them society at largo. The gentlemen who are elected on the Committee have a large

amount of power placed in their hands, which may be exercised either for the advancement or the retardation of education. It behoves tho househoulders to awake to the absolute necessity of electing earnest men, men who have tho true interests of the education question at heart, men who, from their known probity and moral worth, can command the confidence and trust of the mass of the people. Too often we find candidates going in for election whoso sole object is the carrying out of some fad of their own, or oftener still with the express desire of harassing and annoying some unfortunate teacher who may have incurred their august disapproval, most likely by some act which showed he had a few sparks of independence of character. Such cases we have known in our own district, and we emphatically say that such men should havo no place on a School Committee. By their action they defeat the very purpose for which they were elected, and introduce confusion and discord into the management of a school. What is wanted is liberalminded men at the helm, with no axe to grind, but a determination to do their duty and assist in raising their school to a worthy position of pre-eminence. The system of election is perhaps the most peculiar in existence, and it is to this very system that the possibility of electing such men as wo have indicated occurs. There is great laxity as to who is allowed to vote, and the votes may be recorded in a lump for one man or distributed. Thus some miserable touter or place-hunter may prevail upon say some, ten or a dozen of his own class to go down and plump for him, thus securing 70 or 80 votes, and he obtains his seat and keeps out some far superior man, for whom perhaps three times the number of voters have recorded a favourable vote. Why the names of likely candidates cannot be announced as in other elections, say even a week before, does not seem clear. A crowded room, no decided rule as to those entitled to votG, a few names scrawled with chalk on a black board, are all accompanying circumstances that lead to good men keeping aloof. We trust to-night to see an interest taken that will shew that tho Napier people thoroughly are alive to tho importance of a good Committee, and that men of standing, education, and sound sense may be elected for the ensuing term. In making these remarks wo must not be supposed to cast any reflection on the late Committee; thoy deserve great credit for much that they have clone in the past year, but in all public offices we-think healthy competition should be encoui'aged, and new blood never does harm, but produces generally a large amount of good.