Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1895. THE TRICKS OF THE TRUST OFFICE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5002, 17 April 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1895. THE TRICKS OF THE TRUST OFFICE.

Tjiere are tricks in all trades and professions, and the Public Trust Office of New Zealand possesses some peculiarities all its own. Ever since tlio Liberals came into power the Trust Ollice lias been recognised as the dumping ground of out of work Ministerial claquers, sycophants, and billet bunting. Minister-worry-ing, latter-day Liberals. To fit the department, as it were, for the sickening job of receiving Ministerial favourites and flunkies, odd official jobs have been passed over to it. Attaching the Advances to Settlers Office to tbe Public Trust Department lias been a ijoocl stroke for the hangers-on of tbe Liberal party, for it lias opened the door to several fresh appointments of the class known as temporary clerks, The passport to a billet in the Trust Ollice hns been and is "recommended by the Minister of merit, efficiency and capability have no weight, and candidates with these qualifications but lacking Ministerial favour stand not the smallest chance j of success. Tho Government in order to show their appreciation of the "new woman" or the" advanced woman" or " surplus woman ; " flooded the Trust Office with as many lady clerks as they could conveniently take in, The pay of these lady clerks is not on a par with that of the other sex, and the policy of underpaying | women as compared wiih men is in consonance with the views of the Premier, who holds that women are not entitled to the same remuneration as men when performing work equal in amount and quality, Having secured lady clerks at a lower rate of salary, than that paid to the men, the nest step was to subscribe to tho oreed of tho labour faction, and assimilate the salary of the men and j women (n the department, Thfs has [been done in the characteristic Liberal style of "levelling down," and the salary of the male clerks is being rounded off to resemble the sum paid to the lac(i?8. It has baen the rule in all the Government departments to pay temporary clerks at the rate of ten shillings per day, but the Government lias teen

fit to alter this rule, and the regent appointments made' during the last two or three weeks carry a salary of from six and eightponco to eeveu' and sixpence per day. I We believe it to he a fact that the i clerks who have just entered the | Public Trust Office, admittedly temporary clerks, are being paid at tho rate of £IOO to £l2O per annum instead of at the rate of £156 per annum hitherto current. These fledglings are realising the importance of" equal pay for equal work and no sex in citizenship," but- it is doubtful whether they appreciate the experiment to which tlicy are subjected. The Trades Councils and Knights of Labour have been pegging away, advocating the equalisation of pay of nieu and women workers, and the effects of their policy is exemplified in the Public Trust Office. Unmans cutting down tho salary of the men to correspond with the smaller salaries paid to the women. It may be merely a trick of the Trust Oflico,tosbow small workingcxpenses as com paved with past ad mi nist rati on, or it may be a plan for stopping the rush of incompetent billet-hunters, recommended by the Premier and his colleagues. The Trust Office is the one Department of the State, where every clerk should be thoroughly qualified for his post, and the application of the "spoils to the victor" policy here, may force the people into demanding another Royal Commission of Enquiry.