The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1884.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4736, 12 March 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1884.

he new Public Works Minister is apparently intent on a healthy reform of his department, and although his movements in, such a direction must be sanctioned by the Cabinet, a very considerable amount of credit mast be given,to the Hon. E. Mitchelson, so shortly after his accession to office, for seeing such desirable reforms effected in a branch of the service where lavish expenditure of .money has been the rule, and in which the want of economy and ignorance have long travelled hand in .hand. We learn by a telegram that the Engineering departments of the Public Works Office of the two islands are to be amalgamated, -and that this will effect a saving of £5000 a year; in addition, <ifc is rumored that the office of Under-Secretary for Railways "wilt probably be abolished; and we are further told that thenew railway tariff is expected to increase railway revenue by £150,00Q during the coming yeriri; This would!;seem, when cursorily glanced at, news of a most satisfactory nature, and should be quite reassuring to the taxpayer; but why was not all this done before. If by a sudden resolution a staring, deficiency can be so suddenly provided for by those responsible for the soundness of colonial finance, why was the duty of keeping the Treasury in a healthy state so long neglected? This movement is, we must hope, only the thin end of a huge wedge, which must sooner or later be driven home. In that refuge for the genteel destitute in Welling- i ton, many thousands per annum are simply thrown away ( ; from basement to roof, on each of the enormous floors which provide "civil" servants with shelter while they are "putting in" their office hours, are numbers of useless persons who are, kept in pocket money by the exercise of a most scandalous patronage. In the Treasury, Property Tax, Post (head) Office, and Telegraph, Customs, Railway Audit, Railway, Registrar Generals, and almost every other department in the " largest wooden building in the world " there is a superfluity of—by courtesy—workers. The above facts are matters of notoriety, and the pruning knife should have been administered long ago. Tbe tax payer of the colony generally can form no conception of the extravagance which distinguishes the central administration of affairs, for the simple reason that outside the Empire City, the maximum amount of work is ex. pected from public officers who are, except ifl a few cases, chosen for their fitness to perform multifarious duties. For instance, oh gbldfieids each public officer his as many offices to fill as he can well perform the functions of, and in the various towns of the'colony the same rule applies. In the cities the door of patronage is open, and every available use made of it. With all this before us, we hail with satisfaction the probable action in the department presided over by Mr Mitchelson, and look forward with a hope that the good example set by him will be immediately followed by his colleagues, and that the inexcusable extravagance now obtaining in the administration of public affairs will be checked without delay.