The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 30 August 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1880.

There is a panic in the ranks of the railway employes, and we are not surprised at it. In tlis face of proposals to levy almost unexampled taxation, the Opposition, and not a few of the friends of the Government. insisted upon retrenchment being first resorted to, and expressed their willingness that taxation should then be imposed to make up any deficiency between" the receipts and expenditure. If the Government had given the subject the mature deliberation that its importance demanded, they could have come to no other conclusion than that their revolutionary fiscal policy would cause strict and keen inquiry into the necessity for its adoption. Yet they brought down estimates as grossly liberal as evei*. There were the fat votes for plethoric and lazy Civil Servants standing forth as boldly as though the Colony was rolling in wealth. The aristocratic nature of the officials whose salaries they represented was a gnarantee'that the rude hand of the plebeian legislators would pass them untouched. There were the munificently charitable votes for those officials who had with ad* jvancing age become more saucy and useless than ever. Would not their long service protect them? If such admirable sentimentality failed to swell the bosoms of an " obstructive Opposition," as the Premier repeatedly termed —we suppose, ironically—the party or parties opposed to the Government, there was yet another chance of maintaining the salaries of these chief curiosities of the Civil Service Curiosity Shop. Who could resist the pathetic appeals of the Premier in their behalf, when he told the House that he hoped they would not subject these salaries to the process of reduction, because those for whom they were intended had received them for many years; moreover, they had to maintain large establishments and a personal appearance, which would be impossible if their salaries were reduced. The aiguments were too strong- for Government supporters ; but the Opposition ventured to differ from the opinions expressed by the Premier. They said, if reductions must be made, let us start where the Premier would stop—if "any class is to be protected, let it be the wages class. But, against their own convictions, and against their own interests and those of their districts and the Colony, members followed their prophet of strongly Conservative bias into the lobby, and assisted in the perpetration of the most unfair and unreasonable political action that has ever disgraced the Parliament of this Colony. "If you will compel us to retrench," said the Government, "all must be .treated alike." Therefore, the railway employe receiving L2 per week was called upon to make as great a sacrifice as the clerk of the House of Kepre : sentatives, whose salary is L7OO pey annum. But. in the estimation of some men it is a crime to be poor. A fat salary, and not piore than six months' work during the year, /constitute a fortress abound a .Civil •Servant, impervious to the shafts of interfering and harassing politicians. We could multiply instances of the favoritism of] the Government to the high-salaried

Civil Servants, and tlieir oppression of the wages classes. C.an anyone express astonishment that the railway employes are raising .their voices against such an injustice 1 It cannot be expected that, in the face of fresh additions to their already heavy taxation, they should not object to such a one-sided policy—itcannotbe expected that they will bear such additional burthens in order to enable the Government to keep faith with the friends of strong • political supporters. We have every sympathy with the men who are now unitedly appealing to the Government against the wrong that is being done them. There is one thing, however, that we think should be borne in mind by the objectors. Let them be careful not to include amongst their number any employeswhose salaries are sufficiently high to warrant the reduction by 10 per cent. Such a course might not only defeat the object they have in view, but end disastrously to some of thejr number. It is necessary that they shpuld exercise the greatest care in entering their protest,