THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1909. RETRENCHING IN EARNEST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9666, 3 December 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1909. RETRENCHING IN EARNEST.

The Government appear to be de i termined t» give effect to a policy c retrenchment in all departments, am in every way by which it is possibl to make a saving of any considerable value. The extent of the extrava gance for years past, although stout ly denied, has been simply enormous nnd no more cogent evider.ee of th< fact could be found than in th< regime of retrenchment, which thi 1 Government are instituting with n< ( uncertain hand. The condition of th< Government's finances is, as a conse \ quence, not at all what it ought to b< and the earnest retrenching that if now proceeding is an emphatic in dication that the Government realist the fact, although candid admissions do not figure conspicuously in the Budget recently presented to th« House. One of the latest economies decided upon relates to the special grant of 9d per pupil to school committees which has been paid for seven years past. In the House on Wednesday last Mr Guthrie, "with the hope of preventing the perpetra tion of a great injustice at the expense of school committees," asked the Hon. G. Fowlds whether it was intended to make provision on the supplementary estimates for the continuation of the spscial grant of 9d per pupil to school committees. He pointed out that the item does not appear on the consolidated estimates'. The Minister replied stating that the grants could, in his opinion, be paid without difficulty by the boards out | of their general fund. The item was I first paid in the financial year 1903j 04. On December 3ist, 1903, the total net credit balance of the general accounts of all the boards was ; £2,000; at the and of 1907 the total net balance was nearly £24,000, and in December, 1908, the amount of the balance had increased to over '' £29,000, all the boards having their '< general accounts in credit. It would be seen that the average increase of the balance was somewhat greater than the total amount of the grants. Drastic economy is certainly npcessary, and ultimately the country will

benefit by the ordeal through which it has to pass. Fortunately, as Sir Joseph Ward has pointed out, the prospects before us are brighter than they have been for some time, and with care and economv exorcised, both privately and publicly, the efforts of trie people tu improve their position, thus at the same time improving the position of the Dominion as a whole, must insure success.