Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1880.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9198, 17 August 1880, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1880.

We understand that the Civil Service reductions are to extend to pensions a3 well as salaries, and if it be so we do not hesitate to say that a great 'blunder and a great moral wrong will be perpetrated. We never yet heard that the Government pensions already granted are at too high. b. rate ; but supposing for a moment that the whole, or any of them, are extravagant, we atill contend that unless it could be shown that they had been obtained by fraud, they ought not to be interfered with. The Government of the country made a solemn compact with these men, a compact sanctioned, moreover, by Acts of the legislature, that if they serred the country for a certain period each should receive a pension proportionate to the pay he was earning at the time of his retirement. In no case that we are aware of has a pension been granted outside the law. Care has been taken to ascertain that the official was entitled to retire, and then the annual amount to be paid has been calculated according to scale . One party to the bargain has kept faith. The pensioners entered the service with a definite promise of provision at a fixed rate for their declining years if they continued in the performance of their duties till the legal time for retiring arrived. They fulfilled the conditions, were awarded the promised pension, and should be left in undisturbed enjoyment of it without alteration or curtailment. The State — the second party to the bargain — should keep faith also. The work has been done, the services rendered, and the stipulated price should be paid without a murmur or a thought of repudiation. The word is strong, but scarcely strong enough when applied to this proposed spoliation of a class who are entirely at the mercy of Parliament so far as regards their pensions, but whose . right to equitable treatment is just as cogent as though they were judges in their own cause. No valid reason, has been shown for this reduction, indeed there is none. To urge that the colony is passing through a time of depression is nothing to the point. The pensioners are just as much national oreditors as though they were the holders of 'Sew Zealand debentures. The only difference is that it is thought that the former can be wronged with impunity, whereas to refuse or neglect to keep faith with the latter would involve the loss of national credit and bring unnumbered evils on the whole community. It is childish to say that the country cannot afford to pay the pensions, and we deeply regret, that Mr Hall should have consented to a course which, lays his Government open to a charge of unfairness. Having once commenced economising by cutting down the pensions ten per cent, what is the necessity for stopping at that point? We are quite willing to admit that this is a time when the Government should pay no more than they are morally bound to. If paying the pensioas be merely an act of favour, and not of 1 right, they should bo stopped altogether, and the superannuated Civil Servants left to shift for themselveß. Perhaps during the recess honourable members will lay in a stock of courage sufficient to enable them to face this question boldly, and that when Parliament is next in session a bill will be passed abolishing the pensions, and thus staving off the bankruptcy of the colony by retaining the amount in the Treasury chest. 4 The New Zealand Herald, in an article published on the 11 th instant, charges Parliament with refusing to transact the business of tho country. There are excellent grounds for tho accusation. Up to the present time very little Las

been accomplished in the Lower House, and now the fiat has gone forth, that a vast number of important measures are to be shelved, and the session brought to a close at the end of the month. Having 'secured their honorarium (the Herald calls it pay, which is the proper word) members are anxious to be off home. Their private affairs require' attending to, and, that being the case, the interests of. their constituents'—the public welfare — must give way. Conduct such as this looks very like obtaining money under false pretences. If Parliament be prorogued at tho end of the month, members will have" each received payment at the rate of about £800 a year, and done next to nothing •for it. As usual the time has been wasted in talking, and the substantial result has been very small. Every year a mass of useful legislation is prepared for consideration. A few of the bills are passed, and the remainder, often including some of the most important, are ruthlessly sacrificed. Deduct from the work of this session the time wantonly wasted on the no-confi« dencc debate, and other equally worthless discussions, and deduct also the time occupied in advancing measures, which are now to be abandoned, a stago or two, and how much of the three months will have to be credited to useful work? We can suggest no remedy for what is unquestionably an evil of enormous magnitude, unless, indeed, the constituencies awaken <o a full sense of the injustice which they are made to endure. Three months spent in close attention to the business of tho country would, in almost every year, suffice to get through the work handsomely and. creditably ; but if representatives will waste the lime in ceaseless, and for the most part unnecessary jabber, they should continue to sit until the programme has been disposed of. The New Zealand Herald puts the case thus: — "This conduct of the House of. Representatives has no counterpart in any other portion of the world, and it should receive the serious attention of the constituencies. There should be some clear understanding between the electors and their representatives, whether members of Parliament are to be allowed to take their salary, do just as much work as may please them, and leave the rest — important though it may be — to take care of itself. As yet the constituencies have made no such one-sided bargain ; they expect full work for f uil pay. The present system of half-time for full pay is the emanation of Hon. members' own sweet will. If the constituencies approve of. this system of Parliamentary membership rendered easy and legislation made difficult, there is nothing more to be said ; but if they do not, then when next the old lamps and the new present themselves for approval there should be a definite understanding that members will remain in Wellington till their work is done, and not bolt when it suits them with two hundred guineas not earned. The members of the House of Representatives would doubtless indignantly resent the imputation that they will not do the business of the country, will not give value for the pay they receive, and prefer their own convenience to the necessities of the country. They will say that it is not that they will not, but that they cannot — that their own affairs require their attention. The answer would not do. The implied bargain between themselves and their constituents is that they shall do their whole duty, not half of it, and they know it, and knew it when they sought to be returned. If they meant to sacrifice the public necessities to their personal exigencies ; if they knew that they could not give the requisite time to public affairs, they should have told the electors so, or not have come forward, or intimated that they would take only a corresponding portion of their pay. It is not the less dishonest to shirk the work and take the pay, because hon. members are not dishonest of design. If a candidate cannot afford_ the time he should not seek the position. 1 ' Of the Native Bills our contemporary says : — "Not one is sure of passing, and most of them must go to the wall because the House will not bend its back to its work. Now, if there wore any bills with which the House was b^und to deal it was Borne of these Native Bills. They involve a large public policy meant to obviate the enormous evils connected with the Native question in its various phases, and though that one of them dealing with the lands of the Maoris may pass, even that is not a certainty. Yet with a serenity increased by the prospect of an approaching payment f° r work neglected, hon. members ase pFepar£#g to pack their carpetbags and return to the bosom of their families. The time expended on the bills, the urgency of the matters with which they deal, the evil which may ensue if they be Bet aside, is all to go for nothing. Members mean to take care of themselves, and the bills must do the same." There can be no doubt that the above is a fair statement of thp manner in which the House of Representatives are treating the country ; and it might be useful if public opinion on the matter were freely #nd strongly expressed in meetings held for the purpose ithroughout the length, and breadth of the land,