SIR J. VOGEL AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2284, 28 July 1881, Page 3

SIR J. VOGEL AND THE GOVERNMENT.

fßx Telegraph.] [JFBOIt THE OWN COBBEBPONDENT OP THE " PBBSS."J WELLINGTON, July 27. The remainder of the Vogel correspondence (excepting the returned leHer) was laid on the table this evening. Dismissing a considerable quantity of uninteresting details, the features are the following. First, the Premier cabled to Sir J. Vogol, under date September 7th, as follows :—"Parliament have reduced the vote for office to £3OOO. Beduoe secretary's salary to £6OO. Engage an accountant not over £3OO ; dispense with shipping agents. All other salaries, including the Agent General's, are to be reduced 10 per cent, from October Ist. That reduction has been made by Parliament in all New Zealand salaries. Instructions will be sent by next mail." Sir J. Vogel, after detailing the departmental reduction he had effeoted, added the following remarks: "Your wish that all the salaries from October Ist shall be reduced by 10 per tent, will be attended to. I have taken upon myself to think that you do not desire to include the office boy, who receives 10s a week. It seemed to me, however, so hard on all the officers in receipt of small salaries to be so suddenly deprived of their means, and perhaDs thereby be subjected to great hardships.'that I have out of my own pocket paid to Mr David Fenn the loss he suffers dur-'ng the remainder of bis stay, as a'-'o the loss sustained by Mr Shoiu, Mr Hackworrh, and Mr McKeolar for a period of six months. You will allow me to say that the records of my department show great reductions in the face of an enormous mass of work. You will also permit me to add that_ the officers of this department have enjoyed very rare increases of salary; that they have longer hours (10 to nearly 6 o'clock on ordinary days, and 10 to 2 on Saturdays), than the otner officers in the Civil Service, and that they are subjected to the exceptional hardship of an inoome tax, which the other colonies do not allow their officora to lose. I must not, however, be supposed by this comparison to imply that I regard with favor the reduction othor officers in the service have suffered. Knowing so many of them as I do, their devoted service, and, as a rule, their small means, it is to me matter of keen regret that a wealthy colony like New Zealand has found it necessary to make them suffer for the policy of opening up the country which has of late years been pursued. I have, &c, Julius Vogel, Agent General." Mr Hall, in replying, commented as follows upon these passages in Sir J. Vogel's letter: out of your pocket have paid to the several officers named in your letter the amounts by which their salaries for six months were respectively reduced by your oomplience with the instructions given in my telegram. _ Such an act by an officer holding the position of Agent-General was calculated —whatever may have been intended—to suggest to his subordinates that ho believed they had been unjustly treated. The Government reoognieo and regret that hardship has in many cases been caused by compliance with tho instructions of Parliament as to salaries, but they are satisfied that that direction was a necessity in view of tho oondition of the colonial finances, and was not ucjust. They think, therefore, that the Agent-General should, supposing him to be personally unable to agree with tfio views of Parliament and of tho Government, have confined himself, in officially dealing with the question, to intimate to his subordinate officers what those views were. I have to add that the Government consider the last paragraph of your letter altogether uncalled for, _as being an expression of opinion upon the action of Parliament affecting departments not under your control. —I have, &c, John Hall." To tho above Sir J. Vogol replied in the following letter, whioh closed the correspondence : " February 7th, 1881.—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 4th, in reply to mine of October 6th, in whioh you take exception to the course I had pursued in making reductions in my department. As that course was dictated by considerations whioh, to do myself justice, I must set out at considerable length, and as I am about handing over my charge to my successor, I will, with that gentleman's consent, retain a oopy of your letter, and reply to it when I am more at leisure, and when too I shall be more free to express myself unreservedly on the above question. —I have, Ac, Julius , Vogel, Agent-General." Sir J. Vogel's resignation followed. After which he sent the /insulting letter whioh the Government thought right to return to him unanswered.