South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, FEB. 20, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2170, 20 February 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, FEB. 20, 1880.

We are told that the Government have entered earnestly on their policy of retrenchment, and that sweeping alterations and reductions are about to be made in every branch of the Civil service. Already Mr Oliver has taken the lead with the Government railways,and although ho has not done everything that might be accomplished in a way of putting them on a payable footing he must be credited with having effected one or two salutary reforms. The postal and telegraph department is to receive a similar overhauling, and an endeavor will he made in outlying districts to combine the offices, so that postmaster and telegraph operator may

be represented by the. same individual. Of course, other branches of the Civil service will be subjected to a like revision, and it is vei’3 r possible that when the work of retrenchment has been performed, and parliament assembles, a material saving will be exhibited. The task that the Government lias undertaken is one of great difficulty, and by no means pleasant. For that reason they are entitled to every sympathy and encouragement. Some of the processes will probably seem harsh, and we are prepared to hear loud remonstrances from various quarters. The taxpayers, however, will do well to severely curb their emotions and impulses. We do not say that a deaf ear should be turned to the voice of suffering, or that injustice, such as that which certain telegraph operators have lately felt, should evoke no remonstrance, but it is undesirable in the extreme that tbc action of the Government should be hampered by premature condemnation. As far as possible, comment, -whether favorable or the reverse, should be spared in the meantime, and allowed to follow the completion of the task upon which tiie political heads of department have entered. They have promised to reorganise the branches of the public service on an economical footing, and it is our duty to watch, silently, if possible, the way in which the contract is carried out. Wc have no doubt the Government will redeem their promise, but whether to the extent that the exigencies of the colony demands or in a judicious manner remains to be seen. As an instalment of the reductions that arc intended avc arc glad to sec that the Native Department, which has long been a blot and a reproach to the public service of New Zcalimp, is undergoing gradual extinction. This is a good commencement in itself with the official cobwebs. The Government has began its work of reform simultaneously in the north and the south by the sweeping away of offices that are useless, and the abolition of trains that are quite unnecessary. We presume that having perfox*med a little preliminary pruning hi these outlaying districts, the Government will boldly go the root of the evil, and attack the centre. If retrenchment is to be genuine, the pruning knife must not alone be depended on. There arc old fossilised branches clinging fo the trunk of tbc tree,and the saw must be handled. The great focus of the abuses that afflict the Civil service lives and reigns in the £40,000 wooden castle called Government House, at Wellington. This is the home of the barnacles —the hive of the drones. If is a notorious fact that offices, quite unnecessary, have been multiplied in that expensive establishment. Tne maintenance of this Civil service pagoda, laden as it is with sinecures, is one of the great sources of the colonial taxpayers’ afflictions. It is to keep up this political matchbox, with its political creatures and useless factotums, that such iniquities as a property tax and prohibitive Customs duties have had to be imposed. The saving of £IOOO aycar which is expected from the combination of post and telegraph offices on the West Coast is a mere bagatelle, compared with the savings that may be effected by dealing with the departmental extravagance that reigns at Wellington. If the Government arc in earnest in their policy of retrenchment, they will deal, once and for all, effectively, with this central Avhite elephant, avlucli ever since the provinces were abolished, has been rapidly growing in destructiveness and voracity.