The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, MARCH, 14, 1891. Revenge or Retrenchment?

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 112, 14 March 1891, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, MARCH, 14, 1891. Revenge or Retrenchment?

-TicE economies of the present Govern- , ment, as indicated in the list of officers *' retrenched published in our /last issue, are not going to be accepted by v the people as bona fide. On the contrary, they have .been received with openly expressed doubt and suspicion, while the general belief, in which we heartily juiu, is that, as the Wellington Press puts. it, il the whole thing looka very lite a clean sweep of as many servants of the regime as possible to make way for the appoint ment of friends of the new Government." Another contemporary, the Napier Telegraph, says: — " We have hot the slightest confidence in the professions of the Government that their policy will be one of economy. We believe that the chief object of their political lives has been to gel: bold of the public purse-strings, and unless they are closely watched they will make ducks and drakes of the public money." And further — " All this bluudering is to be dove in the name of economy ; but lying at the bottom of it we may be pretty sure the olject is to retire all prominent officers whose appointments yrera made by the late Government, and to fill their places, after a short interval, with the creatures of the party in power ?' The Wellington Post says: .^-'* At present we can only say we consider the action of the Ministry ill'judged^ unwise, unjust to individuals auddeti'imental to ; the true interests of the people of the colony. Mr b«d,doo, by his grand retrenchment coup; may;;}: tickle i the ears of : ; the i groundlirrgs^but it will^maVe t th e" j u d iei q.us "grieV.e'i' and amongst though tful-aftid' niodljriite ; men it -will v teud greatly ti>

shake confidence in the trustworthiness, fairness, and administrative capacity of tie Ministry as a whole." And the N.Z. Times, a supporter of the present Ministry, acts the caudid friend, and remarks : — "At present the ever recurring policies of retrenchment are seudmg the Civil faerrice to the dogs. It is the worst paid service on the face of the earth. . - . No self respecting youth will enter the i Service with any feeling of loyalty to it, or any desire to make a career of it. Only the blind aud the halt and the lame will consent to serve their country permanently. The ou!y animating principle of the service will be the survival of the uufittest." Prom the above it will be gathered that both friends and foes are agreed on this one point. It is well known that some, if not all, of the Cabinet are leavened with those "American notions," which that peculiar, and non» descript, British subject coniinonly described as " the whitewashed Yankee" absorbs after a few months residence in the United States. The mosc popular one is that of " to the victors the spoils" after a general election. The winners make a "clean sweep" of every man, woman and child under thtir predecessors, and put their own followers and friends into the places thus made vacant. The question of fitness or otherwise is, as a matter of course, ignored altogether. All that the recipient needs to know is that duriDg his four years of office he must leave nothing undone to make himself comfortable during the remainiug days of his life by helping himself as liberally as he can to the available spoils. That is the system apparently our present Liberal (save the mark) Ministry would like to introduce into New Zealand. We confess our disappointment. It was our fervent hope and desire that now the Hon. John Ballanco had his opportunity of making his mark as a statesman, he would avail himself of it, but it would appear that he has had. to bend to a stronger will than his own, and adopt a course of policy which must be to hiui.