Slap Dash.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 28 April 1891, Page 3

Slap Dash.

■» *• The Wellington Preu is answerable for the following statement of the careful consideration Ministers give to Retrenchment : — The slap-dash style in whic some of the Ministers are playing the burlesque on retrenchment would be ludicrously absurd, if it were not for the evil results produced \r their fantastic tricks. As a sample, we may mention ilie following apparently well-founded rumour. A certain Minister went to one of the principal officers of his department, and said : " Mr Blank, you will have to cut the number of officials in your room down to — ." The offi.-er asked if it would not be well to put off the reduction until the annual returns had had been got ready for Parliament— a work which they were just about to begin. The Minister was, however, too high and mighty to stoop to the consideration of such petty matters as returns. He replied : " Oh, Mr Blank, if you don't care to do it, I will." Taking his pen, he drew it through the irun '•* of Mr* doomed officials on the 1U lx-f >iv him, and the retrenchment business in that room was finished. In due course, the discharged officials got their compensation, and left the service. The Minister shortly afterwards set out for a distant part of the colony. Meanwhile, nothing was being done to prepare the returns, a3 there were no officials to do the work. Mr Blank telegraphed to the Minister asking how he was to get the returns completed, as no provision had been made. The Minister wired back telling Mr Blank that he ought to have informed him about those returns before the men had been discharged, quite ignoring the fact that he had been told most distinctly. He instructed Mr 1 lank to take on the old hands, as they knew the work, and pay them 10s a day. The offer was made, but politely declined by the retrenched, who refused to come back unless paid at the same rates as before their dismissal. There was no help for it, as the work had to be done quickly, and only men could execute the task in proper time. The old hands were, therefore, temporarily employed on the terms they had asked for, and they are now engaged on those precious returns. The lesson conveyed by this incident throws a painfully strong light on the way in which the public service is being recklessly hacked and slashed by some members of the Radical Government.