The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1305, 12 June 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1880.

That the Colonial Treasurer, Major Atkinson, has boldly faced the difficulty in which the Colony is placed owing to its failing revenue, and that he has attempted to grapple with that difficulty cannot be gainsaid ; but it is equally true that he has not been entirely successful in his efforts to place the finances of the country upon a sound basis, and that he has not adopted the wisest course. Neither can his greatest admirers say that he has been very original in the means that he has adopted, for nearly every proposal that his statement contains has been borrowed freely from his opponents, without so much as "Thank you, good sir, I owe you one," as Dr. Ollapod says in one of Coleman's comedies. But of this we shall say something anon. The Treasurer takes credit to himself and his colleagues for having effected great savings in their various departments, but in this respect he has been guilty of misleading the House. Take, for example, the boasted saving of L3G,000 in the railway department, and what does it amount to 1 I Simply a myth. Of the snm named, a saving of L 30,000 is attributable to the action of the Grey Ministry, as we on a former occasion pointed out, in initiating the use of Colonial coal upon the railways instead of burning coal from Newcastle. It is, therefore, scarcely creditable to the present Colonial Treasurer, and still less fair to the late Ministry, that the credit for this saving should be given to the Hon. Mr. Oliver. If we deduct this sum from the total amount there remains only L6OOO of a saving ; but even for this Mr. Oliver is not entitled to claim any credit, for it may easily be accounted for by the falling off in traffic and the consequent! diminution in the cost of haulage. It is true that Mr. Oliver caused the stoppage of the running of several trains, but as there was actually no work for these to | perform, and as the alterations were chiefly recommended by the permanent heads of the department in the several localities, it cannot be said that the Minister for Public Works has originated any scheme whereby the country has been materially benefited. In the one case he has carried out an arrangement initiated by the previous Ministry, and in the other he has acted on the advice of his subordinates. Surely, then, he must have felt uncomfortable while his colleague, the Colonial Treasurer, was besmearing him with undeserved praise for having effected a saving of L3G,000 in the expense of working the railways. Again, if we turn to the Native Department we find that the saving alleged to have been effected by the Native Minister is almost equally mythical. True, he has, we believe, reduced the sum paid in salaries, but the total expenditure has been nearly, if not quite, brought up to its original standard by the cost of the Native Commission and the enormous cost of occupying the Waimate Plains, a large share of which has been transferred, if we are not mistaken, to the public works account, and paid out of loan in consideration of a road being made that has been declared by the Ministry neces.sary to the settlement of the native difficulty. Thus it will be «een that the savings so grandiloquently paraded by the Treasurer before the eyes of the House and the country are either delusive or they are due to the exertions and originality of men outside of the Ministry. As the alleged reductions are delusive, so are the promised reductions eminently un- ; satisfactory. That a Ministry which lays! claim to special credit for economy should be content with proposing a paltry reduction of L 50.000 iu the Civil Service, composed of 6000 servants, is a circumstance of bo extremely ludicrous a nature that, were it not for the gravity of the ] situation, we should look upon the whole affair as an admirable piece of burlesquing, and enjoy a hearty laugh over it. According to the admission of the Colonial Treasurer, the Colony is now paying I L 1,000,000 a year in salaries, wages, &c., and the service ha 3 grown to proportions altogether beyond the requirements of the Colony or its means. Still the economic Treasurer of an . economic Ministry asks the House and the Colony to be satisfied with a promised reduction of L 50,000 and a promise to still further consider the question during the recess ! Was there ever such admirable fooling, such pettifogging dealing with a great question—a question of the greatest moment to the over-burdened taxpayers of the Colony 1 Surely not. The case is one of great urgency, and yet we are told that there is a good time coining, and are asked to wait a bit longer. We have waited long enough. Hope deferred has made the heart grow sick. We very much mistake the temper of the people if, while fresh burdens are being heaped upon their already heavily ladened backs, they ore content to bear these extra burr dens without demanding that their representatives shall, seeing that the Ministry has failed to grasp the question and deal with it vigorously, take tho matter into their own hands, and fruely apply the pruning knife to tho salaries of tho army of do-littles in the Civil Service. Wo are

by 110 means advocates of a general reduction of salaries throughout the service, for heaven knows there ate many deserving men in the , service who. receive little enough for their services; neither are we advocates for reductions of pay in ordinary cases, for ever}' laborer is worthy <>f his hire. But we agree with the sage who tells us to be juot before we are generous. Justice to the taxpayers of the Colony demands that the salaries of heavily-paid officials should be brought within reason and rendered more in consonance with the straightened finances of the country. The Colonial Treasurer deprecates spasmodic attempts at reductions, and he therefore contents himself with paltry cheese-paring reductions in the salaries of poorly-paid underlings, while a set tit heavily-salaried officials wax fat and growla2y. He forgets that the " continuous Ministry" of which he was, at any rate for a time, a central figure were, in the time of cur prosperity, guilty of promoting spasmodic increases in the salaries of officials who were already well paid. He fails to appreciate the very patent fact that many officials who, a few years ago, were considered well paid with salaries of LSOO or L6OO a year, and even less, are now drawing L7OO and LBOO a year, notwithstanding that their duties have in no way been increased. He deplores our want, of frugality in the past, but he omits to tell us that he was a member of the most prodigal Ministry that has ever ruled the country. He preaches economy, bui fails to practice it in the direction in which his duty to the Colony bids him go. He talks of sacrifices tliat must be made, and calls upon the tax-payeps to cheerfully make those sacrifices, but he fails to lead them to a fair consideration of the financial position of the Colony by displaying an earnest desire to render as light as possible the burdens that they must bear. Had he called upojj the highly-placed and heavily-salaried officials to (Jo their share towards helping the Colony out .of its financial difficulties by submitting to reasonable reductions, he might with a greater show of reason have anticipated that the public would more cheerfully submit to the infliction of fresh taxation. He is ready enough to dip his hand into the pockets of the taxpayers, but he shows not his readiness to offer them any relief in the shape of tangible reductions in the cost of carrying on the work of government. He says to the oppressed taxr payers of the Colony, "You have borne many burdens, but you must bear more." To the army of official leeches he says, " You have drawn much blood from the taxpayers, but you should draw much more. Unfortunately for you, however, there is so little blood left that you must be satisfied. Youareasetof poorly-paid and right good fellows, and ought to be better paid 5 but the Colony has been rendered so poor through the w#ut of forethought of my friends and myself, who ru}ed the Colony for six years during a term of un.exampled prosperity, that we cannot give you larger salaries, and you must not feel annoyed if we take a few shillings a-year off your salaries just to make the bitter pill less nauseous to those whose pockets we are striving to empty. You must not be alarmed if we talk about making further reductions, just to please the common public." This is in effect what the Treasurer's statement amounts to, and we plainly ask the public if they are content with it.

We had intended commenting upon the Colopial Treasurer's proposals for the future, but osying to the length to which this article has beer* extgnded we must defer doing so until a future ocgasion. The importance, too, of many of the matters demands that they should be treated upon more fully than they possibly could be in the article devoted to a consideration of the Financial Statement as a whole. We have endeavored to point- out the fallacies, weakness, and injustice of one portion of tho Colonial Treasurer s. In future articles we shall endeavor to show that many of the remaining proposals of the Treasurer, although at first sight appearing satisfactory, are likely to be attended yvith considerable injustice to some parts of the golony, particularly Canterbury and Qtago, including ojir own district.