The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1886. MR WILLIAM HUTCHISON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2420, 8 October 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1886. MR WILLIAM HUTCHISON.

Ah old friend to-Wellington nnd the Wairarupa, Mr William Hutchison, is now wooing the suffrages of Dunedin Central, and has recently made an admirable election speech, Mr Hutchison iB a Radical, but we have considerable reguvd and esteem for him—lentimenta which we are not want to bestow freely on men of his way of thinking. Very many Radicals are simply agressive, selfish, and reckless, ia playing the garno of politics, and we liko Mr Hutchison because his aggressiveneas is of a kindly nature, bis seltißbness iB not pronounced, and ho possesses, for a Radical, a very large percentage of conscientiousness, In the speech to which we refer he dealt with the question of retrenchment in plain terms, shewing how it might be possible to effect reductions in the public aervico. The following are his proposals

I In the first place they had His Eiccllency the Govornor, whom they provided with a salary and allowance for expenses amounting to about £B,OOO pet annum, with a free house worth possibly another £I,OO0 —but that ho would throw in. Now, the Act which granted the Governor's salary fixed it at £'5,000 a year, and suppose they came back to tho terras of that Aet, and gavo him £6,000 a year.—(Applause) He had not a large amount of work to do, nor had ho a great deal of power, and £5,000 a year would amply pay him, The President of the United States of America got but £IO,OOO a year, and let them think of the comparison between the two countries, Of course they must remember that he was not referring to the Governor personally—no reduction could bo made during tia term, becausohe camo here with the distinct understanding that he was to get what he was getting j but what they should do was to give the next Governor no mora- than £5,000. That would effect a awing of £3,000 »y W , The next head wm the Government itself-the Ministers.. The Premier got L 1.760 a year, and each of. the other members L 1,250, making 19,250 paid to the Cabinet. That sum ho thought should be reduced to 1,7,000, saviif

L 2,850. Everybody bad been curtailed of late, and why should not Minister* ba curtailed also ?He thought LI,OOO a year each would do them very wdl (Hear, hear.) Then the travelling alloffanoe of Ministers last year amounted to L8,8Q2 63 lid. This was a most extravagant outlay. Sir K. Stout drew L 306 }Bs j Sir Julius Vogel L 483 6s 2d; Mr Richardpon L 422 Is; Mr Larnach L 789; Mr Ballance L 495 jMr Tole L 132; Mr Buckley L 163. Now, to did not know what his hearers thought of visits of Ministers—for his part, he did not think they did much good; but no doubt it did them good to como down and attend to their private business at the public expense.— (Laughter.) He propoiod to give them each LIOO for expenses, and thus make a saving of L 2.102 on that expenditure. They travelled, too, with private secretaries, and though thoy involved only_ L 350, ho would sweep thorn away. Then, in the Houso of Representatives there were ninety four members and in tho Legislative Council fifty-four, but owing to deaths the Legislative Council has thinned out lately. Taken altogether these members were paid L 30,000. Somo people would reduce the number of members of Parliameut. —(Heor, hear.) He would rather reform in another way, foi ho bolioved there was safety in a large number. What ho proposed was that the honorarium bo reduced from L2lO to LIOO. If times got better they could come back to the old sum; because to a man of business L2lO would often recompense him for tho time he spent in attending to his duties. He thought LIOO each would do very (airly, aud iu that way thov would eavo another £15,000, He had an idea that tho members of tho Upper House might get less than evep £IOO, because they had not to pay tho expense of elections, and did not work very hard cither. They had a look in at .the House of Representatives to soe the. fun occasionally, and then went away to Bellamy's, —(Laughter.) Thoro were other expenses which could be done away with—they aped tho British Parliament too much in having such officers as a sorgeant-at-arms and others. A saving of £3,000 a year could be made in connection with Parliament House by doing away with such officials, What did they want with a sergeant-at-arms ? Ho had now brought them up to a saving of £26,700 on items which any one of them could easily understand, Ho would proceed to more dfcbateable ground, Commencing with tho Native Department, tho expenditure this year had been £27,000. Now, the greatest blessing that could happen in connection with this Department would be to sweep it away altogether, for it had never done any good either to tho Natives or the Europeans. This Department could not be done away with all at once, although it was nothing but a nest of corruption—but he proposed to take £IO,OOO off it at once, and poihups next year thoy could do with anothor £IO,OOO less, An item which had only nwdo its appearanoe during the last twelve months was that of oxternal defence, whioh cost £37,000, spent in keeping up a commander-in-chief, torpedo corps, and no did not know what, Now if thero was anything they could have done without, it was tlds initiation of a standing army, He did not think a greater mistake could have been made than that, They should deptDd for their defence solely on their Volunteers, who should be encouraged and fostered in every way. They had already spent £250.600 on defences, and that meant an outlay of £IO,OOO a year for interest. So far he had shown how an annual saving of £30,000 might bo effee' cd without going into any of tho other departmeuta,

Mr Hutchison is quite right to begin at the top of the tree with the Governor aud Ministers, Wo are not mire that it might not havo been as well to have left tho former out of the list, but if tho curtailment of the gubernatorial emoluments were essential to an all round scheme of financial reform, it might lie as well not to begin at the top. Wo go heartily with Mr Hutchison in his suggestions for clipping the allowances of our legislators, and only regret that he did not throw their free railway passes into the melting pot while retrenching this luxurious branch, His views with respect to tho native department are sound, and we are not sure that he is not right with respect to the defence expenditure, which lms rohbed us of our best defence--" our unprotectedness." " Shame" would lie ,:ried by the civilised world at any hostile power which bombarded a defenceless colony, but now we have a sprinkling of feeble batteries about our ports we invite attack. We shall not be sorry to see Mr Hutchison returned on his retrenchment platform. He will prove, if elected, to be oue of the most trustworthy and sagacious of radical members, and if Dunedin Central is resolved to havo a radical for its representative, it cannot make a better selection than Mr William Hutchison,