A DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1917, Page 2

A DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT.

To the Editor. ' Man y people are wondering why people of New Zealand waste so much money in paying such a huge army of men to represent them in Parliament for doing nothing but showing themselves in the streets in Wellington by day time, snoozing, nodding and blinking in their benches at night time, and cheering the Ministers when they sing out "we must win the war at any oost." We know that some of them waste a lot of time speaking to galteries and "voting later on in the o-pposite direction to their expression*. Why don't wc reduce the Parliamentary party to six or seven ministers, as the balance of taember3 are there for no better purpose than merely to waste the time of Parliament and prolong tho session, as the Ministers' will will be done after all. Now. what could be more perfect th fl n the manner in which Sir James Allen conducted the business of the country during the absence of tho Prime Minister and Minister of "Finance? He did not, waste and nights discussing and debating measures. On the contrary, he did a wiser thing. He thought of his requirements during lunch, afterwards he got the typist to :W-ork, and directly he got his measure shipshape he went straight to the Governor, got the Governor to seal it, announced it in the Gazette the following morning, and made the measure operative in the afternoon, That is what I call business The whole business was over in 24 hours, whereas Parliament would take a couple of months over it, and a couple of months more befnjv it, was put in force. Apart from all this the generosity of Sir -Tames and his foresight are phenomenal. Observe the pressing wants of the needy. For instance, the poor wear-red solicitorgeneral. who was half starvinnr on the miserable pittance of if 1250"a. rear. King James tbe First of New Zealand, could see the hardship and at once rnis'"l his salary to CllsO a year, which will relieve his hardship a little, anyhow. Next comes the Controller-General with £I2OO a year, whose salary i» increased to the tune of £2OO a year. Next conies the Auditor-General, with a modest £IOOO a year, with an increase of £2.50. Next conies our great general manager of railways, with, his very modest £3OOO a year, clear of all expenses, raised to the rank of colonel and to the extra salary of colonel on top of his modest £3OOO a year clear. Then we have the Governor-General, and how many other fireside generals there is employed is more than I know. Now, Sir, considering this ?rcat, wave of generosity that rolled over the acting Prime Minister, is it not ridiculous for the greedy, selfish dairv farmer to complain of the imposition of one penny per lb butter-fat tax, and more so because a great number of those dairy farmers make a full £IOO a year to maintain themselves and their extravagant families? Why don't the Taranaki farmers show the Mine spirit as the citizens of Ohristchuroh and cluli together and get. up a testimonial and purse of sovereigns and present it to the Acting-Prime Minister, 48 an acknowledgment of his charitable and generous treatment of tho=e poorly paid civil servants? I wonder what would Torv .lames and Jiis mutual ifrionds think of Dick Scddoti and Joe. Ward if they, in their days of might, lavished so much mom-v as £400,T00 on their friends without the authority of Parliament. lit would be put down as corruption by their saintly Tory opponents. Put. of course, we know that it is impossible for the pious James to do any thing corrupt. It is very strange how opinions, as nr-dl as dot-tor*, differ. If I luid the management of affairs, instead of t increasing the salary ,of high paid officials I would do quite the opposite. I would reduce the salary of every civil servant in New Zealand to Hie level of the soldier who is giving his life to maintain those princes in luxury and comfort in New Zealand. Thanking you sir. in anticipation,—! am, i-tc., JOIIN DIG-GINS. Lepperton, July 20.