South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2445, 19 January 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1881.

The Government have apparently only begun their work of retrenchment in the Civil Service. We expressed the opinion some time ago, that while the shoots had been severely trimmed the useless overcrowded and decaying branches had escaped. It is pleasing to observe that the gardener has returned to his work, and that a couple of experts have been appointed to facilitate his operations. If Messrs Batkin and Seed perform their duty they will make an overhauling of the cobwebs that disfigure the central dome of the Augean stable. We refer to the oleaginuous mass of Pashas and Grandees known as Under-Secretaries and their retinues who hold high festival in the Government buildings at Wellington. It is a notorious fact that the Government offices there have long been suffering from that alarming disease called fatty'degeneration. But the genuine drones who luxuriate on the fat of the land in the central'hive have solar escaped attention. Messrs Batkin and Seed are fully acquainted with the circumstances, and perhaps they will pay them a friendly .visit of* inspection. The salt of retrenchment has been rubbed pretty .vigorously into the lean of the Civil Service ; the adipose, ,we presume, deserves a turn. There is a good deal of adipose remaining in the service. The ■ Goverri-f merit' departments are in something* like!the’ condition of the polled Angus bullocks of Southland. They ■ have grown so inordinately fat, that the Fean has" been forced to the wall and

the carcase has become unprofitable. Still the proposed remedy is a sensible one. Au/^mal|raraatioilh> t of clearly means a presort to-the-'-boiling,' down ostablisliirient. (Pho boillrig l down of tb^;\XJrider-Secret3ries, M wonld : . be a great felief'itp the public service.’ It is a pity to see a number of'. stout, able-bodied,old gentlemen, who might be transformed-into'profitable colonists if their attention was diverted to the cultivation of vegetable • marrows and cucumbers, graduating within their corolbiceous recesses, like dear old Pollen, for a future pension. How much -better might they be employed if only allowed ■ to work out their destiny unaided !

Having disposed. ,of the Undersecretaries, tvho are , the genuine fat oxen of the service, Messrs Batkin and Seed might very well devote some attention to the colonial magistracy. The Bench has undergone a slight weeding, but there is still room for reform. As an instance we might refer to the two Magistrates’ Courts at Dunedin—one . for the disposal *of police business, the other for civil cases. The two might very well be amalgamated' without entailing too much -work on the presiding magistrate. or inconveniencing the public. It is well known that the police tribunal in that city has for years been a standing reproach. It seems to be maintained for the purpose of enabling a feeble Bench, coerced or overawed by a hectoring bar, to neutralise the efforts of the police in their endeavors to enforce the statutes of the colony. There raay.be other localities afflicted in the same way, although not to the same degree. Sly grog-selling and prostitution flourish to an amazing degree in places where there is an abundance of police protection but an apathetic or incompetent Bench. Magistrates failing to do their duty in repressing vice and crime should be vigorously dealt with. So long as they are tolerated their turpitude will grow apace, and social epidemics will continue to lay waste the younger and weaker branches of the population. Another thing that demands attention is that commodity peculiar to the Civil Service of most countries called red tape. Although but little of it is floating on the surface, we believe there are bales of it to be found in some of the Government departments. The system of wasting reams of foolscap and disengaging floods of correspondence over the most trivial concerns of everyday life should bo put an end to. If the investigators pursue their enquiries in the head offices in Christchurch and Dunedin they will discover a growth of red tape that is positively alarming. And if the Government perforin their duty they will place the .cultivators of this pernicious article beyond - the reach of doing further mischief. For red tape, once it secures a footing is, like scab in sheep, an infectious affliction. It grows imperceptibly but rapidly, and n't attains enormous proportions before it manifests itself. A little enquiry—a slight examination of the pigeon-holes—will convince Messrs Batkin and Seed that the red tape abomination is to a great extent the banc of the service.,. We have only hinted obscurely at abuses that eminently demand attention. The abuses wo refer to are notorious ; so notorious that we could readily, if requisite, ‘ lay our finger on them. These are portions of the public service so-overgrown with red tape that it is impossible to lose a pin, spill a glass of water, or sneeze above a whisper without disengaging an amount of epistolatory correspondence that is 'quite appalling ; and if Messrs Batkin and Seed choose.to look around them, they will he able to fully verify what ■we assert.