RETRENCHMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2212, 9 June 1891, Page 2

RETRENCHMENT.

O’Cokxell used to say that he never felt he was doing his duty except when the London Times was abusing him. The present Ministry may well say now that it is because they are doing their duty the Conservative papers are abusing them; The position of these papers is most illogical, They were crying out for retrenehmen, but now they say the Government treated the dismissed Civil Servants with cruelty. It would be absolutely impossible to treat them otherwise, if to dismiss them is cruel. Mr Seddon said he hoped he would never have such work to do again. Wives and daughters of dismissed Civil Servants came to him imploring him not to dismiss husband or father, but it had to be done. With regard to the cry of cruelty, there is nething in it. Th a men were dismissed, but they I received compensation, and if they | had been any way thrifty they would have put away sufficient to give them a start in life. But Civil Servants have not very often been thrifty; they looked upon their positions as secure, and they lived up to their incomes. The fact is, our Civil Servants are our aristocracy, and are very frequently most offensive in their bearing towards the people. Instead of being the servants of the people, they regard themselves as the masters of the people, whom they treat with contempt. This retrenchment may possibly exercise a wholesome influence over them. They may now realise their position, and,

learn how to be civil to the people who pay them. To us, however, the retrenchment effected by the Government means very little. We do not agree with those who think a country can be made rich by retrenchment; What we should like to see is something that would keep the people in the country and give them employment. That the present Government claim to aim at, and the question which will be decided shortly is : Have they found the right way to go about it P We spent over one million of money on immigration, and during the last three years we have lost all that. The New Zealand Trade Review also tells that that over £456,000 in gold left this colony during the same time. We have lost our population, we have lost £456,008, and all we have got for it is retrenchment and higher taxation. Nearly 93,000 persons left us, taking with them nearly half a million of money, and we have got only 73,000 penniless immigrants in their stead, together with a reduction of five million pounds in the value of property. That is the result of the retrenchment policy, as presented by the most recent statistics. Anyone who likes these results may enjoy them, but, for our part, it is our opinion that nothing could be worse, and no policy which is net calculated to change this state of things will give us satisfaction.