GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 53, 27 January 1872, Page 4

GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION.

[lndependent.] The (government is bullied by its opponents on the ground of its extravagance, but if it endeavor to secure economy by the amalgamation of offices there is at once an outcry against the unfairness of dispensing with old servants. A striking illustration of this is afforded by the manner in which the action of the Government in the direction of consolidating the colonial departments in Marlborough has been received. The Government saw an opportunity of effecting a considerable saving by amalgamating various, offices, but because some person had of necessity to be dispensed with, his friends immediately got up a protest, which was duly made known to the Government yesterday by a deputation of Marlborough residents, who waited upon the Colonial Secretary for the purpose of inducing him to consent to the retention of the surplus officer. Not a word could be said against the feasibility of the arrangements proposed by the Government; the only objection was that a gentleman who had for some time acted as Resident Magistrate at Blenheim (where a Resident Magistrate, one would think, was not at all necessary), would be thrown out of employment. In this case the course pursued by the Government has been entirely concurred in by the Provincial Executive. Although provincial charges have been almost entirely abolished, the Government still is always willing and desirous to consult the local authorities, and when they concur in any proposal it is fair to assume that the proposal itself is not very far from the correct mark. And when this concurrence takes place no amount of private pressure should be allowed to influence the Government. Session after session the Government is compelled to accept supplementary votes on the estimates, which, under one guise cr another, become permanent items in the following session. It is nonsense to talk of the extravagance of the Government when the continuous increase in the cost of the Civil Service is largely due to the action of the members of the Assembly. On no occasion does the consideration of the estimates conclude without one or other member protesting in the interests of the official or officials to be reduced or dispensed with, against the very economy which probably he has been preaching ad nauseam throughout the session. The heavy accession to the Civil Service of this colony is due far more to the action of the Legislature than to the Government. It would not be difficult to trace a very large number of appointments that are now grumbled at and pointed out as instances of flagrant abuses of patronage, to the action of the Assembly, even in the teeth of opposition or remonstrances from the Government. Eveiy step taken in the direction of economy must affect some one, but the public too often fail to understand that a Government has as much right to dispense with a superfluous officer as a private merchant has to strike off an unnecessary clerk. It is nothing to the point that the officer has performed his duties efficiently. Of course he is supposed to have done so or he would not have been employed. And there is really no ground why, when the Government think that particular office can be abolished, or officer be dispensed with, any extra or public sympathy should be excited for the individual affected. But it seems as if it were understood that Government servants are a priviliged set of persons, and that the bare performance of their duty whilst in the employ of the Government necessitates their continuance in the pay of the colony. The sooner that the whole Civil Service of the colony is placed on a practical business-like

basis the better. The guiding .principles in regulating appointments should be simple enough :—employ no more hands than you want, obtain the best men you can for the work, and pay them well, —and get rid of the absurd idea that because a man has once been in the Government service he is always to be in it. What extra claim a man has because he has received a salary from the State instead of from a private firm or individual, we fail to comprehend. But it is no less a fact that any one, from a postman to a magistrate, is under the impression that the fact of his having served the Government at all is a reason that he should always be employed whether the colony can afford it or not.