GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 24, 8 July 1871, Page 13

GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE.

No 3. The result of our investigation into the official reports of the Postal Departments of Victoria and New Zealand proved, as we stated yesterday, that the post office, the savings banks, and the telegraph were far more largely taken advantage of in the latter colony than in the former. We might have shown this, also, by comparing the number of post offices, &c. Thus, Victoria has 677 post offices, against New Zealand's 457 ; money order offices 195, against 70 ; savings banks 112, against 70 ; while to New Zealand alone, of all the Australasian group, belongs the credit of having life assurance and annuity offices. [The latter branch of the postal department is so interesting, and of such great social importance, that we shall take an early opportunity of considering it by itself.] The number of officers engaged in the whole postal department of New Zealand is five hundred and fifty-five. Here, then, surely we have come at last to the cause of " the frightful extravagance of the General Government." Hear what a certain Dr Curl, writing from "Wanganui to the " Nelson Examiner," says on this subject: " These officials are a standing threat and menace against any form of retrenchment or saving. What Government dare venture to discharge, or propose to do without, two or three hundred of these siuecurists, or some thousands of the smaller officials ? Has any parliament ever dared to strike out half the official list, although they well know how useless the half are, and how much better the colony would be without their so-called services ?" And again : f Onetenth, at, least, of the whole male population of New Zealand is either now in office under the Provincial or General Governments, or waiting or striving to get into office." The " Southland News" quotes the above, with the laudatory preface : " Dr Curl points out the absurd number of officials administering the Government of a thinly populated country like New Zealand ! The Doctor is evidently acquainted with the subject he is handling!!" Let us test these assertions by the departments we have compared. "Will Dr Curl kindly point out to us what custom house he considers unnecessary, or what post office he would have closed! Nay, let him take the reports of these departments, and, after much cogitation, let him specify the officers he would have dismissed, and at the same time demonstrate that " the colony would be better without their so-called services." Probably, such a voluminous correspondent, in drawing the line, would make a stand at Post Offices; but he would insist on the five hundred and fifty-five officials having their salaries reduced. We should like to see this courageous advocate of retrenchment entrusted with the reins of Government for one day, with full power to do what

"no Government and no Parliament have ever dared." Of course, the first thing the Doctor would do would be (to use the punning language of our contemporary), to " become acquainted with the subject he is handling." The only sources of information (the official reports) are before us while we write; and wc do hope this fierce dissector, on economical thoughts intent, will " strike but hear." We believe he will admit that a Post Office, at least, is " of real service," and that to be useful it must be looked after by some one specially appointed for that purpose. In the present sublunary state of things, no one is expected to do any work, or assume any responsible office without being paid for it. If the Doctor denies this, then we are done with him. Assuming, however, that he is thus far with us, we next submit that a salary of £2O is not too much to give for taking charge of a country Post Office. The statistics before us show that of the 555 postal officials in New Zealand, 427 are paid salaries varying from £5 to £2O a year ! Would the Doctor have the courage—the heart —to reduce them lower? Tantoene animis ccdestibus irce? or, to translate it after the manner of our Southland contemporary, • Would Dr Curie Be such a .churl ? Turn we to the statistics of the colony of Victoria, which is put before us as a model, and let. us compare a few of the salaries paid there with those paid the remaining officers here. The first few lines will suffice: Deputy Postmaster. General and Secretary, £9OO ; Inspector of Postal and Telegraph Services, £700; ditto, £620 ; Accountant, £6OO ; Chief Clerk, £6OO ; Telegraph Manager (with quarters), £6OO ; Sub-Inspector, £466 13s 4d. We need not quote the corresponding salaries here. Nor are the officers only paid far higher salaries—they are allowed more clerical assistance. Thus in the Money Order and Savings Banks Department in New Zealand, dealing as we have seen with more money than the Victorian one, there is a Controller paid £420, assisted by three clerks, paid small salaries, while the same department in Victoria (with less money passing through their hands) is thus officered: Controller, £583 6s 8d ; Examiner, £466 13s 4d ; Cashier, £448 6s Bd, with a staff of clerks whoso salaries we cannot exactly discover from the returns. We know, that the next line on the estimates states that there are " 17 clerks at £350, four at £325, one at £3OO, four at £275, and one at £250—£8900." After these figures, it is not surprising to learn that the department in Victoria shows a loss of revenue. A balance is struck at page twenty-one of the last report, which (leaving out the steam subsidies) shows a deficit of over fifty thousand pounds ! Striking a balance in the same way for New Zealand, the revenue exceeds the expenditure by nearly eight thousand pounds ! The result of our enquiries into the expenditure of these two departments (the Customs and Post Office) fills us with astonishment, which is not abated when we think of the number "of officials required for administering the Government of a thinly-populated country like New Zealand," simply because it is " thinly populated." Of course we shall hear a great deal of the expense of the San Francisco service; but from the statistics we have been examining we discover that, had there been no San Francisco service, we should have been charged, for the year £23,671 2s 4d for the carriage of mails to and from England and Melbourne. The last contract for bringing the mail from Melbourne on to Port Chalmers was £II,OOO : and we maybe sure Auckland would insist on a mail service from Sydney, which would take, say, £B,OOO more ; so that with the Interprovincial subsidies for distributing the mails added to these items, we discover that the San Francisco service is the cheapest as it is, in every other respect,the best postal service the colony has ever had. Wherever "the frightful extravagance of the General Government" may be detected, it assuredly is not in either one or the other of these departments, aud we challenge the most ardentlover of economy, to single out any one officer that.is unnecessary, and to show " how much better the Colony would be without his services ?■'