The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1311, 19 June 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1880.

Axd yet another instance of the insincerity of the cry raised by the present Ministry for economy lias been brought to li«ht. In tlie London Times of a recent date there appeal's an advertisement calling for applications for ; the post of " Inspector of Prisons in New Zealand," and applications were to be received by the Agent-General until itlie 15th April. The salary was not definitelv given, but the over-burdened tax-payers"of the Colony -will be gratified to learn that the advertisement states that " the salary will not exceed L6OO per annum, with the usual travelling allowances/' so that we suppose that the total expense that we shall have to pay for this luxury, including, of course, the necessary private secretary and under-strappers, will be only another L2OOO a-year. If we mistake not, four years ago the Jlinistry of the dav. comprising two at least of the precious crew that now govern with such wisdom this delightful Colony, proposed to adopt a precisely similar course. At that time the Ministry included in its ranks Mr. C. C. Bowen, who, as the Yankees say, is "death on" prisons and prison management. This fact was accepted as accounting in some measure for the attempt to create an unnecessary olBce; but notwithstanding this the Ministry were defeated on the motion of Mr. Burns, and the appointment was abandoned, at what cost to the Colony we cannot say. Now, it is very evident that a member of the present Ministry has made prisons his hobby—that we. have, in fact, a Bowen the second in office somewhere in disguise; but have we a second Burns? Is there any member to do as the Burns did, and move a resolution affirming the disapproval of the House at the course the Government have thought proper to adopt in the face of the snubbing given to some of them only a short time since. It is not only the useless, and therefore unnecessary, nature of the proposed expenditure that we object to; there is a broader principle involved. "We most emphatically protest against the setting aside of old and tried officers when there is a chance of promotion, in order that some aristocratic pauper of the Old Country may be comfortably provided for. If the office of Inspector of Prisons is necessaiy—and we will not admit that it is—why, for instance, should Mr. Caldwell, the Dunedin gaoler, not receive promotion. He was, we believe, the first man to solve the problem of making a gaol self-supporting, and why should such a worthy servant as he has proved himself be passed over in order that some ead from Home may secure a good billet, with "little to do, and plenty to get T We are surprised that that very careful reader of advertisements in the columns of the London Times, Sir William Fox, did not notice the announcement to which we have referred, and call attention to it when directing the notice of Ministers to the fact of Judge Bathgate's name appearing iu the prospectus of the Mortgage and Investment Company as a director. Had he done so, he would have gained a reputation for impartiality—a quality that he at present sadly lacks.