The Globe. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 874, 13 April 1877, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877.

Mu. W. -T. Bull, C.E., late Assistant Provincial Engineer, in a letter in this day’s Press, makes a serious charge against the General Government, regarding the manner in which they arc

dealing with the question of compensation to those provincial servants who have been thrown out of employment. He accuses them of disputing those claims, on all sorts of trivial grounds. “ Some are told,” he says, “ that any claims they have can only he reckoned from the date of their stamped appointments; others, that they can only claim one month’s salary, on the grounds of their engagement being terminable with a month’s notice on either side; and others, because they arc not on the staff.” In settling those claims for compensation disputes might naturally be expected to arise. But, in the circumstances, the Government would best have consulted the true interests of the country in entering upon their discussion in a large and liberal spirit. But it would appear, from Mr. Bull’s letter, that the Government have not done so. To take advantage of every legal quibble that may arise is not a creditable course to take. Such was certainly not the intention of the Legislature when the Abolition Act was passed. It was felt that many deserving officers, who had faithfully discharged their duty to the country, would by that Act be thrown out of employment, and that the country would only be doing an act of simple justice by compensating them to some extent for the loss of office. By taking the course the Government are accused of doing, a few hundred pounds may bo saved, but it will be but a paltry sum after all, and will scarcely deduct a drop from the ocean of debt which New Zealand has already accumulated. Of course it is the duty of the Government to exercise economy, and to effect every saving they possibly can. But it seems to us that to begin this by aggravating the sufferings of those Provincial officers who have been deprived of office, is a most unwise course to take, and is not calculated to impress the public either with the wisdom of our rulers, or with their ability to deal in a comprehensive manlier with the question of retrenchment.

Provincialism lias passed away, and the new order of things has taken its place with none of the anticipated disasters which wo were told would surely accompany the change. Had Abolition not been the natural result of the progress of the colony, had it not completely outgrown our requirements, a very different state of affairs might have been existing at the present moment. Three months only have elapsed since the Act came into force, and with the exception of those Provincial officers who have been thrown out of employment, scarcely any one would know that the colony has passed through what has been called a great constitutional crisis. Even Auckland and Dunedin, where same sort of trouble was anticipated, have calmly accepted the situation, and set about making the best of what they profess to call a bad bargain. Of course the friends of the old regime amuse themselves through the columns of the press, with discovering all sorts of results from the change. The other day the position of the Lyttelton Harbor Board —without property and without power —was quoted as an example of what Abolition had produced, although in reality this state of affairs was the result, not of General Government blundering, but of Provincial carlessness. It has even been insinuated that the recent heavy calendar in Canterbury was traceable to the revolutionary spirit which had been awakened, and that the numerous cases of theft, embezzlement, and larceny which have taken place during the last quarter, were suggested by the conduct of our representatives themselves. Canterbury has been, it would appear, the greatest sufferer in this respect. Some of our Judges elsewhere have commented upon the remarkable absence of crime in their districts ; so we suppose we must regard this sad result as Canterbury s punishment for so unanimously embracing Abolition.