SIR JULIUS VOGEL'S SUPPRESSED LETTER.

Manawatu Herald, 30 August 1881, Page 2

SIR JULIUS VOGEL'S SUPPRESSED LETTER.

Wellingtos, Aug. 27. The following received by mail today is a copy of Sir Julius Vogel's suppressed letter : — The Hon. the Premier, WeHiugJoa. — Sir,' —la continuation of my letter of the 7tb, I have now the honor to further reply to your tetter of the 4th December, iv which you are good enough to tell me that the Government regret that I thought it necessary out of my own pocket to pay certain oflioers the amount which for six months they would lose by the operation of the deduction of the ten per cent on their salaries, end in which you also express the opinion that the last paragraph of my letter, to which yours was a reply, was uncalled for. lam nob disposed to suffer censure without defending myself, and you must therefore excuse a very frank reply on my part. In both cases you shelter the Government behind Parliament, and make it appear that I have committed an offence against the latter. I cannot, howover, admit this view. A Government is responsible for the legislation to whioh.it submits, and should not remain in office if Parliament forces on it measures to which it knows it cannot give effect or of which it disapproves. It is in the "very essence of the constitution of Parliament that the Government which leads it, and which has means of information at its command not, open to individual members, should interfere to prevent wrongful legislation. I assert, with the utmost respect, that Government had the means at its command of knowing that the vote it accepted for the A^ent-General's Department was not sufficient'to meet its engagements, and also that it had the means of Knowing that the reduction ef 10 per cant from the salaries of Oivil ■Servants waa a straining of legal and moral obligation's. Her Majesty's Oivil Servants of the Colony of New Zealand enjoy the protection of certain Civil Service Acts, and it is contrary to the spirit of t these Acts that the salaries of those officers'should be reduced unless for misconduct. The Act of last session providing for the reduction of 10 per cent of their, salaries, was a denial of the engagements under which Civil Servants held their appointments. No further proof o c this is wanted than the injurious effects o\ the measure on the rights which . have grpvrn up to retiring allowances; Besides, a4l have said, i eductions of salaries, except for misconduct, are <juite opposed to the intention of the Civil Service Aats. The mode of reducing expenditure contemplated by the C'vnl Service Aots is* by the superannuation of superior, and the promotion of inferior, officers. The only alternative to the Act of last session, possessing the character I hare indicated, is that it

was a '4|i&££l|9Bfefcuitg oat % class of the i <^mmanMsPTolr k speclll income t^^ff ten 'percent, *Whicheverof thetwojHfcbe • ; s4kef , there can be no questiouTJWthe Civil Servants were entitled to express their opinion concerning it The Civil Servants are not the servants of this or that ' Minister, but jjhe servants of her Majesty, amenable to legal and constitutional con' troL They are not serfs to be subjected to injurious proceedings without even the right of remonstrance. When I am censored for an act which, was really jaaaa&Jta^^ shelter the Government from disaster, I reply that I regret I did not adopt more energetic faction. . The Govejrftaerit/con* templa'ted large' reductions in. lee* 1 service/ and in this respect was quite within its tights; NotWngcan^TOore-THtsomtbie'if"-"" retrenchment can be dispensed with, but the Civil Servants, with the knowledge that the Government contemplated whole* sale reductions, were cowed injbo passively accepting the ten pc? cent reduction, fpr whoever desired %to object may>rea- * sonably expect that hef would ile altogether dismissed. Let me say that duriug the last four years there , is scarcely a country in the world which hit not suffered seriously from depression and-. .„ diminished revenue,' but -the only • country ' " which I know of which .has taken a similar course with -regard to a reduction of 1 the Civil Servants is Turkey. It may'taf tjpt . the example of that country is one that it is creditable, to follow, but at the same time it must be remembered that the OmTSer--vants do not enjoy the protection of Civil : Service Acts, and the reductions in Turkey . ware made Under thee3tigenoies|of the «Wnta . rtitio regunu When the vote of three '" | thousand pounds was accepted ajs sufficient to pay the cost of the Agent-General's Department to the 30th June of this year, the Government had the means of knowing that consistently with the fulfilling engage* nients it was not sufficient. I will proceed to prove this. I was directed by letter,, dated the 10th Sept and by a cablegram, which preceded it, to take 10 per cent of all salaries from the first of October, and I was told that the cost of my department must not exceed £3000 a year, made up as follows :— Agent-General, £ 1350 ; secre- . tary, £600; accountant, £300; clerks, £350; messenger,- £4O; rent, &a, £360; total, £3000. It was thus made to appear that the vote was adhered to, but seeing that the reductions were in no case to commence before the Ist October, there were the six months extra expenditure, from 31st March to be added. Then as to the items, I pass over the questionable taste of asking me who, was holding office for the convenience of the Goverr ment, to accept a reduction, as I am willing to believe this was an act of inadvertence. The Secretary was in receipt of a salary of £800, and by your figures it was to be reduced 25 per cent Seeing that this gentlemen came . Home to fill the office, and that he enjoyed the protection of the Civil Service Acts,* such a reduction was, in my opinion, amendable to a very strong expression. The accountant's salary you reduced by 40 per cent, regardless of *he enormous magni- ' tude of the responsibilities attaching to .his onerous position. And, finally, the rent * and contingencies you set down at a sum le3B than you- were advised was the rent > that was payable over a long lease. It is true I had intimated it might be practicable: J x> sublet a part of the offices, but dearly this could not be done a 1 ; a moment*} no*. . tice. I considered I was bound to give effect to your instructions, and I Jid so, but I do not think that I, as a Civil Servant, was precluded from expressing ray opinion that the action taken was unconstitutional. I subjected myself to personal sacrifice. I knew that to persons enjoying small in* comes a suddeu reduction of a large proportion of the same must be highly inconvenient and painful, and I felt it would notibe to the advantage of my department tha{ meritorious gentlemen connected with it siould run the risk of subjection to embarrassment. My answer would not be complete if I did not examine into the plea of necessity. The Government admit that the JBivil Servants were by the action taken subjected to hardship. One would think ,^ suet an admission sufficient, but the hard-* ship 13 sought to be justified becanse of the Stan's necessity, I cannot but think ibat the colony has suffered greUlv from the melancholy view taken by the Government of its capabilities. As I have already remarked, New Zealand was not singular in the depression that overtook it. Ido not -^ think that during the last four yean any ■ country or colony has escaped suffering from the wave of depression which with astonishing uniformity has with more' or" less energy rolled over the entire world. In was reserved to the Government of Ifew Zealand to take the. singular course of prostrating itself before what common sense should have told it was a ternoorary derangement which, if not exaggerated by panic, would soon be at an end. That which was coming was obvious enoigh, a.nd provision could have been mage to meet it. After the five million loan was negotiated the expenditure should have been somewkat contracted. lam aware that the Government spoke of liabilities having been entered into for works, bat such liabilities could easily haVe< beeni distributed over a longer period. For the , rest, the Government seemed to anxiously Instil a want of confidence into the minds of the people with ao r other; ap|»rehVb>jec^' th»n to stop the policy of public works and emigration, and to deprive the civil servants of the incomes they were entitled to. After all, beyond>#mpai^velyflM^^ootMM|,|s in the ordinary revenue, which 'could haye y been met by the re^mpositionof the tea and . sugar duties, and other remedies nb& of * ' prejudicial he .worst that ( had happened was that the' sales of 4and afete postponed. The land still remained, and with patience war sure* to recover its#*lu»> , and demand. I* was open to yon to do what almos^ every ojvjlueti Government, had done— postpone the denoietfey tUl'the orltfs was over. You were not threatened with any difficulty in 6btalnin]fmonejr: *TB^lolin Agents suggested to you obtaining what you , required in Australia. The experience .06 >' the. late Victorian loan showed that had you acted on the bint you must have Bueoeeded. Later still I cabled you a plan by which you fcbuhi obtain iuo£es,#ntl 4? : 7J^ did not entertain it, I presumed yen found youoould meet your requirements in wme other and better .way: but if the, fs.o.t , is, and there is no deuying it, IHat what the Government -wanted -was . to- persuade tho people that they must grre'^p'tbeir !^ol6i£ ( • < ising policy. Ido no ; for a moment rtippdse the Government, wera notiuneere in believing that it was for , the best this should. be done. They looked at it from the vi«w oY/the'la^ge landowners, , who having ob-^ tamed the railways they wtttrfed; w^e f©»rvtj ful of possible future direct taxation. Tf& a oertaiu extent these views )Seeurjd>th«#f own fulfilment, for the credit of the colony ' was depressed to ; an«x.sent that thjfe«tened a breach of all confidence in it. Fortunately, ' ' sensible men in this country saw through it 4^3 refused to believe in the" bogy of " repuJiation," which if, not .aotaalUr, paraded, was hinted at in the brief ground. Had the alarm of the Government been folly echoed here, it i* ilvH|iiiii!erSto^*ra«glnlte the^grrtvity of. the diriHwtltbat might have been>oeoaßioned. The financial instttadfeas of the colony are of course in emergWoy liable to the heaviest state taxation, end a roo might have taken place oa them, th« end '

' of wh^j, to, pawns «£„ property in the eoleq^ "tgdtfnot Kawiwnfbr»een. A Go▼MWWt^puld be iij&otWiii> "beyond a mdrgMßffl^depsrtiieiit; iij&hould have i theiipKw^o devils and tflp boldness to . exMutq l^tater %ne interew* of the State Kqjopj insteadtof being overawed by the diffienli lea which New Zealand, in common , srith other oolonies and fo.un trie*, was jneefofc They nright havepreen that the timehad arrTOa when the grand oppor-. bad oome for New Zeal«s^, for which ■fljlfhad been laying itself out since 1870. colony had been preparing itself to be---'oomethehbita.of a large population. It k fiadßaidWjß^lHprtbALif the means of p oommunfotffioifflropenwf up there is room | for millipni of people and milHtns. of oapij Ul. When, so to speair r it had placed Its ; Honje in order, a convulsion occurred in | this Country, the odnsequeooerof which was fr to drire thousands and thousands of per4| j sons possessing the •meaits ,and the know- | ledge most wanted in the ddlony to search f oat for themselves new homes. Just when is New Zealand might have had these in any * number, accompanied with practically unlimited eapital^e, Qo vernmvnt so decried th© colony that relngjantly tfey looked for , another home thadiki^M; the " Great ,' Britain of the Sonth.^HWfcich their eyes < were fondly turned. 'ri^jip. the polioy'flf -; colonisation is at an end,«» 3 the spectaol'e I* i» presented of the Government concentrat- | ing all its energies on disputes' with natives, y : jqpt es in time preceding the era of coloniiation. History repeats itself. ' We have fa 1880 of the condition of 1869. To return to the Civil Servants. How oonld the Government, with any show of coflUßlenoy, indalge in such glGomy luca- ' brations whett it saw its way to exact from itssetvant*,»reduotionqf 10 percent of their incomes. The Civil Servants of New Zealand are worse paid than in other colonies of equal standing, and far from being an exifleptittmuyjtfoh clams, there is .reason to tear th«y;. ate the reverse. If Ihey could $ye Suoogh-''Buch taxation, what was to iP' 6^ 1 * a Jimilar coarse' 1 with other and SrwSb&rlcissrtf Par be it fibm me to recommend^eaoh a thing, for, as I have already intinteled, vexations taxation at times of exceptional depression is, to say the least, a mistake. But'what excuse is there for regarding suih depression with panic-stricken eyes, when la comparatively poor section of the community can, in addition to their otheviboM#9, bear an Income Tax of ten per cent, ejsaoted, too, without the delay which usut4ly follows the imposition of similar taxation. The Government have censured me for a mild protest against the exceptionaljlegialation by which I was in r jured, in common with the other servants of Her Mnjlpty. In my own self-defence it has" beco^B necessary to combat the plea by whioh t^ Government songht to make me reeponsi >le for'iisrespeot to Parliament. Ihavethevn, also, how strained, from a legal and m tal point of view, is'the action whioh has b sen taken, and I have disposed of the plea o imperative necessity. Whilst treating of tke la^t rabjeot I have spoken to the colony rather than to the Government,jfor I feal the latter will not profit by my remarks, {but I trust they will not be denied publicity. My health and circumstances foibid my returning to reside in « New Zealand, to take part in public affairs, , as ray fellow colonists ' might wish to confide to me, bit I shonld be insensible to, , and jpigrete al ' for, the many marks of ;oonfi&iDe th r people of New Zealand have reposSfeiai c did I hesitate to express pMopinioH 1 whj k may be of some humble service lo tin a. ; I cannot fail to remember that «lr serefyears, with the break only of :.a fewjveetß.iE was continually in the Q-o- ----■ vernment, and that I did not retire because of tbe wish of *he people or of Parliament, .1 have, etc., [ . ' . . Julius Yogel. . - ( ; t ' ' •

■ -s -Morn. Even. Aagaatao r- : ... 12.S 12.23 „ .U ... .i. i . ' .V. 1.12 1.30 September 1 ...'... 1.f13 2.18