The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1890. HOW THEY RETRENCHED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2111, 14 October 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1890. HOW THEY RETRENCHED.

Tebetble indeed was the indictment made by Mr Fish in his speech at Dunedin recently against the present Government. In 1887 Parliament passed a resolution to the effect that the travelling expenses of Ministers in any one year should not exceed £IOOO. In the first year of office the present Ministry spent £lslß, the second year £ll6B, and the third year £1696. It will be remembered that it was the same gentlemen who made all the' noise about one shilling and three pence being charged in the account of the previous Government for a sardine opener supplied to a ministerial residence. Then the Hon. Mr Stevens, his wife, and a lady friend, took a four-horse drag on a picnic excursion into the interior of Otago, and this cost between £l4O and £l5O. Mr Stevens is a Minister without a portfolio—a kind of drynurse to the Government—and this was the way he enjoyed himself. Judge Edwards’s salary was put down at £ISOO a year and £IOOO travelling expenses, making in all £2500. 'lhe late Mr Bperrey received £6OO a year as Property Tax Commissioner, and to this was added a bonus of £l5O for acting as a boundary commissioner and compiling the triennial assessment. The work, according to Mr Fish, was done by a clerk at 10s per ! day, and Mr hperrey only looked on. | This was the way in which retrenchment was carried out. Mr Orombie, Deputy - Commissioner, received a bonus of £75 for doing exactly what Mr Sperrey was paid for. The Sur-veyor-General, whose salary was £750, received a bonus of £IOO. Mr Cooper .got a bonus of £125, but though almost all highly salaried officials got something not one penny was given to the w'orst paid. Twenty whose salaries ranged from £3lO to £475 gof' in creas es of between £2O and £IOO a year, Dofc °. ne single salary under £2OO was mcreped. It was to prevent this sort of thing that the Opposition fPßght go hard to cut down the estimates» and it Rappt be admitted that they were pprfeptly right in doing so,, Another matter referred to was a ministerial residence which Mr Cooper, the under-secretary, rents at £IOO a year, while the Premier pays £2OO a year for 8 house which he rents from a private in* dividual. This really is monstrous. These ministerial residences are provided by the colony for the accommodation of Ministers, and it is a most outrageous thing to Jet one of these, which is worth £250 a year, to a civil servant for £IOO a year, while the colony has to pay £2OO a year for a house for the Premier. Thereat least |is a dead loss of £IOO. We have I always said that w@ .had no faith in

Atkinsonian retrenchment, and this proves it. Mr Fish also succeeded in knocking off the estimates a pension whieh has been paid wrongfully for years. In 1876 he said a Mr John Outram was employed in the Dunedin gaol and got “ cold in his eye.” He was forced to resign, and ever since he has been receiving a pension of £IBB a year, but when the matter came to be looked into there was no authority for paying this and it was struck off. Mr Outram is a wealthy man who is now in England enjoying himself. It is no wonder this poor unfortunate colony is in a state of depression when such is the way in which her affairs have been managed. There can be no doubt but the Opposition did good work last session in exposing this sort of business, and they certainly deserve the best thanks of the colony for it.