RETRENCHMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1959, 22 October 1889, Page 4

RETRENCHMENT.

Just a nice little bit of retrenchment. The Government got rid of the Engineer-in-Chief, and sent him to London, where he receives a large sum as consulting engineer to the colony. A difficulty then arose regarding his successor. One faction in the Ministry .wanted to appoint Mr O'Connor/the oWer favored Mr Blair, and things came to a deadlock. In order to get over the difficulty Mr C. T. Batkin, second in command in the Audit Office, was pensioned off at £SOO a year, and Mr O'Connor appointed to "the vacaney thus created. This is how retrenchment ia effeoted : by giving a man £SOO a year for doing nothing, while another man is paid for doing the work he used to do. A poet in the Otago Workman writes as follows on the subject : Oh, Mr C.T. Batkin,

With you we do not quarrel;, Your lines in pleasant places Have fallen—that's a moral! Wo grieve ,to see Zaalaodia, .': our robbed pnd plundered ; But wouldn't care a snap, if we ■,. , . Were you, with that fiye hundred ! The odd pound's we could spare you, The six and eight;likewis9, But the whole ' taro'd total,' Batkin, '< ■ Quite took' us by'surprise. ' .11 : Ob, we don't mind a fair thing; ? i But this—great Scbttr-wa wondered If it could bo' a square thing— This pension of five ( hundred !_ . Hard times are bow upon us; Ketrenehment'i awful,frown Has steeped''in gloom the country, ; And blighted eyery town, While pamjierecl like ißitkin, IV whom Sir k Arry bluntfer'ed,,... Still fea.at and lire right, royally ; With pensions of fire hundred ! While thousands of our colonists ©reat hardships suffer daily, The Barnacles of Wellington Enjoy themselves quite gaily; ' They toil not, neither do they spin, But on their heads, unnumbered, Are showfed Bir Harry's favors And pensions of five hundred ! Ten .thousand men huve left us—; h New Zealand's bone and siuow • And while such j<>ba are rampant Migration will continue. They loved Zealandia dearly ; To leave it long they pondered,< Till gruff Sir Harry scared them oft With jobs like this five Hundred! Ob, Mr C. T. Batkin, You've had a pleasant time — Good pay, an easy billet, And though still in your prime, You've got a thumping pension When from, our servioe sundered ; You'll liye now; till of doom — (A Batkin sin perpetual, bloom) And draw eaoh year five husdred!