The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1890. COMING EVENTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2079, 31 July 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1890. COMING EVENTS.

As we anticipated the result of the retrenchment is to get the civil service up in arms. They held a meeting last Saturday in Wellington and they resolved to form a union in order to push forward their claims. Still the retrenchment goes on, and still the outside public bring pressure to bear on members to cut down expenditure as far as possible. The position of a member who can read the signs of the times, therefore, cannot be regarded as a very rosy one, He sees on one side that if he cuts down salaries the result will be that a tradesunion of civil servants will make him raise them again as the railway employes did. On the other hand he sees his constituents urging him on to retrench, and if he does not obey their behests he will not be re-elected. The position is really extremely critical. Notwithstanding that taxation has during the last three years been augmented by £330,000 stilf if we believe the Public Works Statement there is nothing for it but to increase taxation a great deal further, or go to London for another loan. There is, of course, a way out of the difficulty. Public works should be stopped instantly and the money in hand to carry them on applied to settling the people on the land. To stop public works would throw large numbers out of employment, but the cutting up of large estates would provide them with work It is no use, however, to urge thi.

point upon politicians. They will not do it; they cannot be got to leave the beaten track. We are told that taxation is crushing us and no doubt it is, but so far as we can see we must yet face more of it. If we borrow another million it means additional taxation of between £40,000 and £50,000 ; if we do not borrow it, we must raise by means of taxation money to maintain necessary works. There seems, therefore, no way out of the difficulty, and so far as we can see politicians are opening their eyes to it. The . result of this cutting down of salaries will be as we haye said, to strengthen tradesunionism, It is the grandest thing possible for that for it will result in consolidating the forces of labor. Then how will it end. Private and public servants must get more wages, taxation must-be increased, What next ? We do not know. Very possibly the situation will become so unbearable that we shall be driven into adopting Bellamy’s system much sooner than he expected. It is a pity a little common sense is not brought to bear upon these matters just now; it is a pity we cannot lift ourselves out of the old ruts and rise equal to the occasion, but we cannot, or will not, and consequently the result will, without doubt, be that the profits of capital will, henceforward, be reduced considerably. Increase of taxation and increase of wages attacks it from both ends, and serve it right, because it is its greed and near-sightedness that has brought all this on top of us.