Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. MONDAY, 11th FEBRUARY, 1867.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 453, 11 February 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

MONDAY, 11th FEBRUARY, 1867.

“ Nnllius addict us jurare in vcrla mayistri.”

THE COST OF GOVERNMENT. [second article.] Resuming the consideration of the oppressive weight of Taxation under which the colony groans in order to carry on an excessively costly system of government* we now approach thai division of the subject which relates to the annual absorption of the enormous revenue of the colony and the channels through which it disappears. First, then, it does not appear that any considerable proportion of the co lonial revenue is devoted to the prosecution of reproductive works : if such were the case, there would not be so great cause of co mplaint, for capital so devoted is altogether of a different nature from capital sunk and gone. A great proportion of the proceeds of our taxation must be applied to the payment of interest and pro. viding a sinking fund for the war debt, though it would be no difficult thing to show that such ought not to be the case; the true source of the war expenses should taken from the waste lands of the rebellious tribes. Waiving this, however, fur the present, and admitting that these funds must be provided from the taxes, we have indicated one of the outlets of the revenue. Another is the expense attaching to certain necessary departments of the Government, such as Judicial, Postal, &c.; and the only question that arises respecting the several departments is, whether they are conducted with a due regard to economy in the expenditure of the public funds. The primary outlet however for the Government expenditure is, as shown by our Nelson contemporary, the wages paid to a most enormous staff of public servants, constituting more than an entire regiment in the total —that is the Civil Service of the colony. The facts shown by the Examiner are of a striking character. We have, it would seem, permitted this service to grow vastly more rapidly than the colony itself; and great as has been the increase in the revenues levied ifrom the public year after year, still I greater has been the increase of the | civil staff and the funds so expended, i The census returns of the colony, as published from time to time, show the rapid advance made in the population : thus, in the year 1853, the jpopulation was as nearly as possible 140.000 persons, and the ordinary reJX.m £BO,OOO, or at the rate of £2 per head per annnm, against an estimated population and revenue now of 200.000 persous and £1,200,000, or j£6 per head, the burthen of taxation i havinii been increased in the fourteen I

years, as nearly as possible, ia a triple ratio —the population 500 per cent, and the taxation 1500 per cent.

Nothing could possibly show ns ore clearly, than such a reference as the

above to actual statistics, the fallacy of the commonly received principle that it necessarily costs more in proportion to govern a small than a large community, for the cost of governing the colony of New Zealand has been a constantly increasing one—increasing far more rapidly than the population rjjP tjifl country ! un«l rsf cost has not been so rnnch in tho rippr?-

ful expenditure of the several depart-

ments oi the uovermueiu as in the prodigious increase of salaried offices, and of salaries; that is in the cost of the Civil service.

The evil is an admitted one, even by the Government itself; hence we w find that one of the subjects to which 0 the earliest attention of the late Geueral Assembly was directed was this, 0 and a special committee was appointed to enquire into and report upon the 13 state of the Civil Service—great hopes “ being entertained by some that reforms I would be indicated by that committee, J ’ o: and that its labours would result in a d remodelling and reduction in the cost of the service. Such however was not ai the case. In due time the committee ' furnished its report, and was quite ii unable to suggest any practical re- t 5 forms, the public servants being gene- g! rally worse paid than the ordinary n clerks in the offices of the mercantile S * community. We have not the slightest doubt that that portion of the report is true enough ; but it is not the £ underpaid clerks of the public offices who swallow down the resources of ß the colony; neither is it from the ” cheese-paring economy that would re- V duce their salaries, that any efficient [ J ( reform could be hoped for, or saving in the public expenditure effected : it is P . a in the higher departments that the o sweeping reductions must be made. Offices made expressly to fit obliging i friends or silence troublesome oppo- °; nents must be abolished, and the enormous sums paid to the higher officials s< • ° p in each department reduced within i, something like the means of the co- J louy. If this were done, there is no reason why the cost of the civil ser- G V vice of the colony may not be reduced g to something like what it was ten or t( twelve years ago. We feel strongly that if the people e of the colony could be brought to properly appreciate the fact that they b have individually, and for their wives and children, to pay for government a sum of .£6, or nearly 2s. Gd. per head e per week. We should not find them i so tamely submitting to such extortion if, instead of paying from 10s. to 30s k weekly to the Government through the merchant and retailer, each head of a family was culled upon to pay it 1 direct to'the tax-collector. Wearecer- i; tain it would not be submtted to, but 1 C people would rise cn masse and insist t on reform ; but the fact is that, ai- 11 though in this way they really pay f much more than the sums that reach the Government, and are consequently [ indicated in the figures above given, c they do it, as it were, blindfolded, not knowing how much they pay at a i time nor when they pay it. 1 This however is another aspect of the question, the consideration of I which we must defer to a future ar- t tide. ’