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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1307, 15 June 1880, Page 2

There can be- no mistake that the Government are fully determined to provide handsomely for their friends. We have already seen how they. have provided for a large number of their political adherents by appointing them upon a variety of Commissions ; and how Colonel Trimble was created Chairman of the Native Affairs Committee in order that he might receive the benefit of the handsome addition of LIOO to his honorarium. But these are not the only cases in point. The latest instance of the parental care bestowed by the Ministry upon their followers is the announcement that the salary of the Chairman of Committee, Mr. A, P. Seymour, is to be increased to L6OO a-year. This, too, in the face of the fact that Parliament is promised a short session. If LSOO a-year was considered sufficient remuneration for the Chairman of Committee in the time of our prosperity, why should it not be so now that we are in financial difficulties ? The Chairman of Committee is not likely to be troubled with any additional work. He will not be called upon to peform any of the work of retrenchment. Why then should his salary be incr eased ? To us it appears like another piece of jobbery. The whole action of the Ministry brings forcibly to mind that portion of the Scriptures wherein we read, " Unto him that hath shall be given, unto him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." And yet the present is a pure, a moral, and an economical Government.