Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, APRIL, 8,1909 SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4396, 8 April 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, APRIL, 8,1909 SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY.

I his above all—to thine own self be true , \nd it mast follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

Financial stringency is not, in itself, and considered apart, from the ininvaluable light which its presence in our midst has thrown upon public expenditure a welcome visitant. When, however, we begin so soon to see the“ uses" of this form of common “ adversity " manifest themselves in the reduction of our public expenditure by a quarter of a million annually, as Sir Joseph Ward proposes to reduce it, we are inclined to believe that there are manv things more to be dreaded than financial stringency. There used to be an old saw to the effect that “ fortunes are saved, not earned but the surprise of finding ourselves in a position to “ save ” a fortune at the rate of a quarter of a million annually, is tempered, considerably tempered by the reflection that we have recently been losing a fortune at that rate. > In other words the roads and railways for which we have been crying out so hopelessly, the roads and railways, which are to the development of nature’s resources what the circu* lation of capital is to the development of manufacture, these might have been in a much more advanced state than they are, had that quarter of a million but been expended in paying interest on capital invested in their construction. But the actual or approximate financial loss in to the country resulting from the overlapping and overstaffing of the various public service departments is not all the waste represented, and we are for other considerations besides those of pecuniary economy, glad to see the sweeping reforms which are being proposed. It is a fact which requires no stating, a fact which goes without saying, that in any enterprise which is loaded with surplus labour there must be an immediate loss of despatch, a continual dissipation of energy and concentration, and a general tendency towards clogging, and ineffective work, No man, in any position, is capable of doing his best work until he is fully occupied, occupied to the point of absorption during working hours. We do not for one moment advocate evertaxing any worker, public or other, but we do say that the labourer, in whatsoever field, can never fully realize himself until he is so placed as to feel the full pressure of his occupation calling into play the full complement of his faculties. Then and only then, can he respond with the best effort he has to expend. We are convinced that Sir Joseph Ward is taking the right step in deciding to have the present departments of the Civil Service so reconstructed and amalgamated with each other as to permit a sweeping reduction of expenditure ; because it will save that much in capital to the Dominion, and at the same time not only, as he assures us, cause no loss of efficiency, but rather tend to increase the efficiency of the public servants who are retained. Moreover, the Premier’s proposal to abolish the fixed daily travelling allowance, and substitute the allow* ance of expenses actually incurred is a most welcome one. With regard however to the amalgamation of the

various departments, we are by no means in agreem,ent with the proposal to lump the Departments of Agriculture, and of Industries and Gommerce, with the Tourist Department. To any reflecting mind it. is impossible to escape the conviction that to make such an attempt is to aim at achieving the unachievable.

,It must mean either that the two ’latter depart men’s will be over

shadowed by the former, or that tue [ former will suffer, and in either * case the consequences will be so serious as to effect the whole Dominion. It is to be hoped that in arranging the various amalga inations of departments no measure will be adopted which will impair the efficiency of the departments, for that would mean that the proposed economy would be rendered worse than purgatory. It is also to be hoped that in amalgamating the departments of Public Health, Charitable Aid, Hospitals, and Mental Hospitals the greatest care will be observed not to sacrifice any of the interests of this most important part of our common interests to the necessity for retrenchment. As it is the accommodation at the Avondale Mental Hospital is seriously inadequate, and in any case the practice of housing such widely different cases as are housed in the one institution is a deplorably bad one; while, as everyone knows, our Government nurses lead a strenuous life in our district hospitals. However we have no doubt that those medical gentlemen who are responsible for the working of our great institutions will afford full information on points affecting the limits of retrenchment in their departments ; and, much as we sympathise with those Civil servants, who will suffer through the loss of positions, we are sure that the general retrenchment and amalgamation of departments throughout the Public Service will be a considerable advantage to the Dominion-