South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2312, 14 August 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1880.

The condition of the Civil Service is not likely to be improved by the carrying out to the letter of the excessively ill-advised recommendation of the late Commission. Although parliament assented to the proposal that there should be a substantial reduction of salaries and wages, it was understood that in applying the pruning knife to the departments the Government would exercise a very considerable amount of discretionary power. Indeed the Premier promised as much, for on July 9, we find him stating that “ there might be exceptional cases in which such a resolution might not be justifiable, and in those cases the Government would take upon themselves the responsibility .of deviating from the rule, justifying their action afterwards to the House, if necessary.” Every colonist who can appreciate fair play, must have applauded such a sentiment, just as they did the richly-merited rebuke administered the other evening to the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission for his mendacious and slanderous attack on the character of a public officer, because he dared to speak the truth at the risk of contradicting Mr Alfred Saunders. Put although four weeks have barley elapsed since the Premier gave expression to this manly sentiment concerning the “ exceptions,” we now find the Government carrying out the resolution of the House to the letter, and with a rigour that is merciless and unjustiable. Within the past few days the various working departments have been notified that an all-round reduction of 10 per cent will forthwith bo enforced, irrespective of amount of salary or wages. The effect of this on the badly paid branches of the public service may easily bo imagined. Any little energy that was left after the repeated threats of our Civil Service reformers will necessarily be stamped out, and the hard working reproductive branches will be rendered disappointed and demoralised.

Let us glance for a moment at the kind of retrenchment that is taking place. Railway servants and telegraph officers, who found it difficult to make both ends meet and present a decent appearance in public on £75 to £IOO per annum, will bavc £ i 10s to £l2 deducted from their miserable salaries. They will

naturally look askance at this negative sort of encourag'omeot. Promotion downwards is not exactly the sort of stuff to give strength to the arm or activity to the intellect. These servants of the public, if they fairly recognise the position in which they stand, will perceive that if they submit to a deliberate ami cruel injustice now, the future is hopeless. The reduction of 10 per cent imposed on small salaries by the Government of New Zealand could not he practised with the same impunity on the. operatives of a Lancashire woollen factory or a Glasgow foundry. We venture to say that a circular of a similar nature to that issued to the employees of the Government eo.uld not be distributed among the coal-miners of Shag Point, Kaitangata or Green Island, without producing a strike immediately. If a reduction of ibis kind is tolerated now, what hope have the working hands of the" departments—not the overpaid idlers of the Service, but the men who earn their money—that they will bo treated .differently in the future ? There are salaries in the Public Service, we allow, which will stand pruning. Some of the larger ones might, be pruned out of existence, and nobody save the officials concerned would be any the wiser. But this miserable cheeseparing of the wages and salaries of the industrial orders is a thing that could hardly have been contemplated by the legislature, and to inflict it is a serious blunder. What makes the infliction (he more pitiful is (ho fact that it is made at a time of almost universal suffering. "Wore the labour market in a normal condition, no government would dare to jumpon its poorly paid servants, as the present Ministry arc doing. If there were suitable outlets for illpaid and dissatisfied employees these inhuman and revolting circulars would never have seen the light. The rcironehmont adopted, if any, would have been in consonance with, the expressed wishes of the country. The departmental blossoms —the gentlemen who earn from £IOO to £IOOO per annum by sitting in comfortably furnished offices doing literally nothing for five hours a day—would lind their occupation gone, and the hard-working subordinates would be encouraged. We did hope to sec at the hands of

the proso.nl Government n proper system of retrenchment introduced, but we are disappointed. Instead of retrenchment we iind a, merciless abuse of power which threatens to demoralise and destroy the more useful branches of the Service. In place of a judicious amalgatmn of oiliees, the excision of those which are merely ornamental or can without much sacrifice be dispensed with, a reduction of the salaries of the 'overpaid, and suitable rewards for fidelity and efficiency, we have universal suffering. The country demanded that the corruption and uselessness should be weeded out ; the Government has resolved that the weeds, in common with the fruitful stock, shall he mowed down. This may kill the valuable plants, but it will ultimately benefit the weeds, which, profiting by tbe decay of tbeir associates, will Hourish more vigorously than ever. To take advantage of the low tone of the labor market in order to crush down railway and telegraph operatives, is neither economy nor retrenchment, but it is tyranny. And tyranny in this case is absolute folly. The places of cllieient experienced officers cannot easily be tilled, nor can the universal discontent arising from a keen sense of injustice, be easily allayed. We venture to predict that the carrying into practical operation of this stupid all-round 10 per cent reduction will do more to destroy the efficiency of the public service than anything else that could possibly be invented could accomplish.