COLONIAL GOVERNORS' PENSIONS, AND OTHERS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 566, 2 September 1869, Page 4

COLONIAL GOVERNORS' PENSIONS, AND OTHERS.

(From the Pad Mall Qasette.) The list of pensions granted to retired colonial Governors under the provisions of the Act of 1865, which was recently published, is instructive in various ways, Tho yhole number of retired governorsreceiving pensions ja ten, and the total iunount is under LSOOO (L 4848 2s Ud). There is only one Governor who has received the full first-class pension of LI OOO a year, and that is Sir Charles J)aTliug, who, not having attained the ago of sixty, lias, we regret to see, received his doubtless well-merited pension on the ground of " infirmity," in which case the Act allows of the full rate of pension being given \mdor sixty, and with fifteen years service in lieu of eighteen, Sir Henry Lighi), formerly Governor of British Guinea, being above tfie age of sixty, and having served twelve -years, receives a reduced pension of L6(iQ 33s 4d. Four ex-Governors receive £500 a year each, one of these having retired from " infirmity* at t]ie ago of fifty, when he had a salary of L2OOO a year, after twenty-four years.' ser.vice. Sir William Colebrooke, formerly Governor of Barbadoes, and Sir William Denison, who has been Governor of Tasmania, receive reduced pensions of L 253 and L 459, in addition to military full pay and military half- pay respectively, it being expressly provided in tho Act (28 and 29 Viet., c. 10$, sec. 7) that tho pension is to be reduced by half the amount of any " half-pay, salary, or other emolument from any public revenue raised, or in respect of any public services performed, within her Majesty's dominions," received by t\,\fy retired colonial governor entitled to a pension under the Act. S^r William Denison further loses the benefit of his pension as long ds he is chairman of the Rivers Commission, with a salary of LIOOO a yearThere remain the pensions of Mr C. J. Latrobe of L 333 6s Bd, who, when he retired, had a salary of L3OOO a year, and had served fourteen years, and of Mr W. Shortland, formerly Lieutenant Governor of Tobago, with a salary of LI 200 a year, who, after service of ten years and a*half, has retired from " infirmity 1 ' at the age of pixty-one, with a pension of LIGG 13s 4d. These d«tails will certainly not excite horror or alarm at extra vaganoe. If Sir William Denison (a brother, by the way, of the Speaker)*sr Sir Charles Darling had entered the House of Commons, and held for five yeafs any political oinee, with a salary of L2OOO a year, a pension of LI2OO would be within cither's grasp, Mr Latrobe or Mr Shortland, in the House of Commons, j^nd becoming Under-Secretary for the Colonies or for any other department, would, in five years, without the aid of ''infirmity," be entitled, under the Civil Offices Pensions Bill which is pending, to pensions of LBOO a year. The representative character of colonial governors gives them necessarily a temporary position, from which, if their private means are limited, the fall is. more unpleasant, not to say invidious, than can be that of any member of Parliament ceding to hold precarious political office. In every way the colonial goveynors seem sfiurrily treated. The diplomatists — a Jess numerous body—cost the public L 20,000 for pensions, against the LSOOO of colonial governors. Diplomatists,, again, after fifteen years of service, attain to pensions of a higher scale ; ambassadors, LI7OO a year ; envoys and ministers, LI3OO and L9OO ; secretaries of legation, L7OO ; the scale for coloniaj governors is LIOOO, L 750, LSOO, and L 240. It appears also that far better pensions are attainable in the Hdme Civil Service under the regulatipns of the Superanuation Allowance .Act ; while the advantages, attractions, and ease of home service in comparison ■with the life of colonial governors are too obvious to require mention. Difficulty fn obtaining good colonial governors has often ©cenrred. Not very long ago a letter appeared in the Times with a well-known signature "R, D. M." easily identified with a member of the Indian Council, pointing out the superiority of Indian to English civilians, as evidenced by the choice on several occasions of Indians for colonial governments, as Lord Metcalfe, Sit George Anderson, and, Sir John Peter Grant. Thiß brings iw to the very root of the colonial governor diffieiilty. Wealthy and highly-placed English politicians witk parliamentary ambition do not desire, as a genernl rale, an ill-requited colonial exil». Our whole system of pensions liequires revision ; and Panliament would do well to stop theCjrviJ Offices Pensions Bill no<v before it until a general revision can be made in conneotjos with the contemplated reviuio* by Government of the Civil Servicb.