The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1891. RETRENCHMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2193, 25 April 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1891. RETRENCHMENT.

We bare not been able to applaud all the Government has done in the way of retrenchment, but at the same time we must admit that there is no sham about it. It is not a “ robbing Peter to pay Paul ” sort of retrenchment, such as the previous Government indulged in. They are not stopping subsidies to local bodies, and throwing the burden on local rates; they are not dismissing provincial auditors, and charging local bodies for auditing their accounts; they are not breaking the law by laying violent hands on the sinking funds, under the Public Loans to Local Bodies Act, as their predecessors did. They are doing none of this, but are retrenching vigorously, in a whole-souled unrelenting manner, Another peculiarity of their retrenchment is that they have begun at the top of the tree. They have attacked the Tite Barnacles of the Civil service, and are getting rid of them without respect to age or length of service. They aay they have retrenched to the extent of £50,000. If so, they have done what we did not believe possible. Let us see what has been done in the way of retrenchment during the last few years. Sir Harry Atkinson claimed that he cut down expenditure to the tune of &230,000. In his last Financial Statement he said it was impossible te cut down expenditure any lower. The skinflints met, and insisted on further retrenchment to the extent of £50,000. The Government said it was impossible to do it, but Mr Ballance’s party joined forces with the “ skinflints,” and between them they hacked down the estimates by the amount named. That made the amount of retrenchment altogether £280,000, and now in addition to this the present Government claim to have made a further reduction of £50,000, making in all £330,000. Then without a doubt the Stout-Vogel Government effected a saving of £95,000, making a grand total of' £425,000 saved in the public expenditure during four or five years. It is very prsbable that the saving has been greatly exaggerated in many respects, but making allowance for that there can be very little doubt but that the public expenditure has been cut down by about £300,000. This is really an astonishing sum to save in such a limited -budget as ours, but it shows us the disgracefully extravagant way in which our business had been previoufcly managed, However, what strikes us as the moat remarkable feature of the whole affair is the violence of the attacks made on the present Ministry on account of retrenchment by the papers which have hitherto made it appear that all political virtue was embodied in retrenchment. It seems ridiculous for Tory papers now to be condemning the Government tor doing exactly what they have all along said was necessary to do, but the explanation of this is not far to seek. The cry of the Tories hitherto has been economy, and they warned the public against the present Ministry on the ground that they would be extravagant. Now the present Government are not going to be extravagant, and consequently there will be a difficulty in getting up a cry against them. What will the Tories do then ? How will they be able to regain power ? There is where the trouble begins and ends—there is no room to scream extravagance now, and consequently no means by which the country can be frightened. There is nothing left for them now only to find fault with the dismissal of old servants, bnt they forget to show how retrenchment could be carried out in any other way. Only one thing wa sincerely hope, and it is that the present Government will not follow the example of their predecessors, that is, begin to make fresh ap- j pointments immediately after having ceased to retrench. The late Government made 113 fresh appointments in the year after carrying out their re- j tronehmont proposals. "We hope the j present Government will not do that, ; or if they do we trust they will not give the appointments to officers who have received large sums as retirement allowances. At present it is simply ridiculous on the part of the Conservative papers to find fault with retrenchment, but it only shows the spirit of unfairness with which they are disposed to treat every act of the Government