The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1887. RETRENCHMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1656, 5 November 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1887. RETRENCHMENT.

“LEAVE IT TO ME.”

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION,

In our last issue we showed that the colony loses about £91,000 by changing its Government this year, but we might overlook that if the future proposals were real or genuine. Major Atkinson has proposed to begin at the top of the tree by cutting , down the Governor’s salary by £2,500, but let it be remembered this is not to be done while the present Governor bobls office What is more, Sir George Grey has said that at some previous period of the colony’s history an attempt was made to reduce the Governor’s salary, but the English Government disallowed it, and that is his excuse now for proposing to render it 1 possible for New Zealand to elect her own Governor. If England has on a previous occasion refused to allow the salary of the Governor to be reduced it is very likely she will not allow it to be done now, and if so we must put down this piece of retrenchment as a sham. At any rate it is not. to bo done while the present Governor remains in the colony, so there cannot S be any immediate saving, and really Major Atkinson has used the pruning knife at the top of the tree only that he might have a better excuse for applying the axe to the bottom of it, The next proposal is that the Legislative Council shall be reduced to 35, and that their honorarium shall be reduced to £IOO. Now there are 48 Legislative Councillors, and we ask; Is it likely that these will agree to the political extinction of 13 of their number? They may, and indeed they ought to agree to a reduction in their honorarium, but they will not commit political suicide. That is another sham. Then the House of Representatives is to be reduced to 70 members but that cannot take place for the next three years. That is another sham. Then there is no idea given as to how the other reductions are to be effected. All we are told is that a lump sum will be taken off every department. We are inclined to think that that too is delusive, and that the realities of the statement are the increase of the property tax and another million loan. As regards the proposals to retrench in the Legislature, everyone must admit that to reduce the honorarium of the Legislative Councillors is just and proper, and why such a large sum should ever have been allowed to them \S inexplicable. They are mostly rich men; they attend merely to conserve the interests of the rich, and ought to pay their own expenses. Besides this they have no election expenses to bear. Few men go into the Ho use of Representatives whose election expenses do not amount to the first year’s honorarium, but Legislative Councillors have to bear none of these expenses. To reduce their honorarium to £IOO is right and proper, indeed it ought to be reduced to £SO; but we cannot approve of reducing the honorarium of members of the Lower House. It would be far better to increase it to £BOO than bring it down to £l5O. We should then get a better class of men in Parliament, and the colony would gain ten times as much by it. At present few care to go into Parliament with the exception of two classes —Eirst, rich men, to whom the honorarium is a- matter of very small consideration; and second, men who could not make more of their timeout of it. Neither of these classes is exactly suitable. There may be good men amongst both classes, but as a general rule the rich men legislate to suit themselvfes, and the other class lack political sagacity and ability. We want the ablest men in the land to represent us in Parliament, but very few able men will leave their business for £2lO a year, and fewer will go when the sum is reduced to £l5O, This is false economy, and it will be rendered worse when the number of members is reduced to 70. If that is done no poor man will be able to afford to contest any election, for the districts will be so large that the cost of election would ruin him The governing of the country would therefore fall completely into the hands of the rich, and that is not desirable. To Reduce the salary of the Premier by £750, and the salaries of other Ministers by £450 is also unwise. The proposed salaries would pay such men as the present Ministers, but not such men as Sir Robert Stout. We must therefore, if salaries are thus reduced, expect only men of inferior ability to take office. There are such things as true economy and false economy, and we have not the slightest hesitation in saying that many of Major Atkinspn’s proposals are vicious and delusive.

FURTHER BORROWING

OifE of the pledgss wbiph Political Reformers placed foreroost in their programme during the last election was that there should be no further borrowing, but the first thing their politic*! idol—the man for whose return they worked so hard—has done is to propose tp borrow another million pounds. That theve is npt the

slightest necessity for it is clearly demonstrated by Major Atkinson himself. He tells us that he can carry on public ■works to the end of 1888 with the amount at present lying to credit on that account, but he does not think that good enough. He desires to have the handling of another loan so that he shall not be put to the slightest inconvenience. Wo doubt very much whether it is the gallant Major who wants the loan so much as the financial institutions whose political agents he and his Attorney-General are. It does not look very reasonable that in the present scared state of mind of the English money-lender, any man would ask for a loan if be could do without it, and that it is not wanted is shown plainly by Major Atkinson himself. We have, however, no means of ascertaining what his private reasons may be. What we wish to know is how the Political Reformers feel on the subject ? Are they satisfied with Major Atkinson’s professions of economy when he proposes to increase the interest payable to foreign bondholders by another £50,000 a year ? Does this show that there is a great amount of sincerity in Major Atkinson’s professions ? Can anyone have any faith in a man who retrenches with one hand and heaps on taxes wi h the other ? The Atkinson party can and have. They do not care so much about these trifles as they do about other things. Eirst of all they hate the idea of Sir Robert Stout being in power. They know full well his sympathies are with the people, and that the general leanings of his policy would favor the people. This does not suit them ; they want the land ; they want cheap labor; they want cheap goods, and these will be put in their way. The advantages they will thus receive will compensate for increased taxation. When Major Atkinson returned to power recently we said he would not be able to retain office long because he would not have the means of corrupting members as he had hitherto. He means evidently to have it; he means to secure another loan of £1,000,000, and then he will be in a position to secure support. Major Atkinson has borrowed and spent more public money than any other three men in the colony, and yet there are people who do not blush to throw all the blame of it on Sir Julius Vogel.

“ CHARITABLE AID.”

The Timaru Herald, with that brutality of taste which for some time has characterised it, sneered inita issue of yesterday at the member for Eangitata. In discussing the question of charitable aid districts it said that Mr Buxton had voted for the Bill which proposes to separate Warmate from the South Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid District, and that it had not the slightest confidence in his judgment. How this is truculent. There is not a man in Parliament placed in a more awkward fix at the present t ; me than Mr Buxton, but we have not the slightest doubt that he will get out of it ia a manner that will prove ha is a man of sound judgment and common sense. In reference to local matters the duty of a representative is to do the best be can for his district, and that is what Mr Buxton is trying to do. In the Bill involving the division of South Canterbury, two other districts are concerned. One of these is the Ashburton district, which also desires to separate from Christchurch, and the larger portion of the constituency which Mr Buxton represents is on the north side of the Eangitata. How here is where Mr Buxton’s difficulty comes iu : If he had voted against the Bill he would for all he knew then | have thrown it out altogether and given serious offence to the majority of his constituents. He did not do this ; he knew it had another step to go. He voted for the second reading, but said he would be prepared to amend it in Committee. By having adopted this course he will have done his best to serve both ends of his constituency. He cau vote for the separation of Ashburton from Christchurch, and when the Bill goes into Committee he can move the rejection of the clauses involving the separation of Waimate from South Canterbury. The Timaru Herald saw that was what Mr Buxton proposed doing, for it says he might possibly do it, yet it had the disgustingly bad taste to attempt to reflect on his judgment. Mr Buxton, if he does as we have pointed out, will have acted with great discrimination and doubtless to the satisfaction of his constituents, despite the vulgar sneering of the Timaru Herald. Mixed up in this matter is a much important question. At the last meeting of the Temuka Eoad Board the Chairman said the Eoad Board’s contribution to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board at present was £350 a year. If Waimate is separated from South Canterbury there can b® no doubt but that this sum will be greatly increased—probably to nearly half the amount at present obtained from rates. lip to the present the ratepayers did not feel this, as the subsidies obtained from Q-ovemment more than covered the charitable aid rate, but in the retrenchment scheme no\y before Parliament it is proposed to reduce these subsidies 'to the vanishing point. And this is called retrenchment, Bobbing Peter to pay Paul is a characteristic of the Atkinson retrenchment. If the subsidies are taken away the local bodies must increase their rates, so as to proyide

funds for charitable aid, and it will come to the| same thing in the end. The prospects which Major Atkinson’s proposals hold out to us therefor© are more local rates, increase in the property tax, increase in the number of unemployed, and another loan. We ought to go down on our marrowbones daily and thank our stars that w© have substituted Atkinson for Vogel.

In the House last Thursday Mr Ballance asked the Colonial Treasurer to give members some idea of the details of his retrenchment proposals. At present members of Parliament know about as much as we do down here as to how retrenchment will be carried out; all they are told is that a lump sum will be taken off, but how it is to be done remains a dark and inscrutable mystery. Major Atkinson refused to comply with Mr Ballance’s very reasonable request. His reply was that the House must trust the Government. This is simply ridiculous. “ Leave it all to me ” Major Atkinson says, but was it for that the colony elected 95 men a few weeks ago F Have these been elected to leave everything to Major Atkinson ? The colony realise now that too much has been left to Major Atkinson in the past, and a pretty mess he has made of it, and it will be found that his present muddling will not produce better results.

There never was a lime when the prospects of Bible reading in schools and grants in aid of Catholic Education looked brighter. A large number has been returned who favor Bible reading in schools, and the number favorable to granting aid to Catholic Education is also considerable. There are many in favor of Bible reading in schools who are opposed to granting aid to Catholics, but the advocates of the Catholic claims refuse to assist the Bible-in-schools party unless they assist them in getting aid for Catholic schools. Both proposals are therefore made contingent on each other, and unless both are passed one cannot pass. The prospects of both passing are brighter according to all reports than they have ever been before, and all we have to say is that w 6 sincerely trust they will. We are hot going to say whether they are right or whether they are wrong, bub we are going to say that to give legal effect to them is expedient. They have for many years been demoralising politics, and it is to these two questions the Stout-Vogel Government owe their defeat. There is not the slightest doubt blit that for these questions Sir Robert Stout would have been elected. Mr McGuire, who is a Catholic, and who contested Mount Egmont with Major Atkinson, would have been elected also only that the Catholics turned against him on this question and voted for Major Atkinson, who promised to support their claims. ,In the same way Mr Ivess, who is also a Catholic, would have been returned for Napier only that the Catholics voted against him, and it is, to the Catholics Sir John Hall is also indebted for his election- We could name other constituencies in which the same question exercised great influence, but it is unnecessary. Liberalism has received a crushing blow from these influences, and if" Liberals are true to themselves and the cause they represent they will at once remove this stumbling block from the path of progress. They are demoralising politics at present, and the sooner we remove • such disburbiug elements and clear the political atmosphere of them the better.