The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1884.

Thames Star, Volume xv, Issue 4744, 21 March 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1884.

The question of retrenching Government expenditure has been referred to by us so frequently that the subject is almost inclined to become monotonous, but its importance is sufficient justification to us to cause a farther reference to it. Every session seems to bring fresh woes to the colonial taxpayer, and as it appears some' what impossible to institute a new scheme of drawing money from the.colonist, what should have been undertaken years ago is about to be gone about now. Tbe ecandala daily exhibiting themselves are strong links in a cbain of evidence required to show that the, colony has been supporting an extravagent civil list, and the sooner a stop is put to this drain on colonial revenue the better pleased will be the taxpayer, and the easier the path of the legislator; Reductions are threatened; the abolition of sinecures is promised us, and the economical working of the Civil Service is to be conceded at last, and this, a thing which should have been the rule applied to it since its inauguration. Although not properly speaking coming within the category of civil servants, and perhaps it cannot be complained of on the score of extravagant salaries; the Government Insurance Department is one to which the pruning knifecan with advantage be applied. la it an army of clerks is employed to do work performed in connection with companies with much lesser numbers, and in it patronage is used, and private ends gratis fied to a somewhat inordinate degree. We have chronicled the satisfactory arrangement made by Mr Geo. Thorne with the Commissioner, whereby the former nets between two and three thousand per annum, and we have lately seen that three of the most efficient officers in the department have—in various way— left it,, chiefly to join similar institutions. Nothing but a thorough reorganisation will effect any- healthy change in this department. We hope that all this vaunted reform is not " the usual thing" before a meeting of Parliament, but that the question will be seriously and conscientiously dealt with in the coming session, with a saisfactory result to the people generally.