The Westport Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 480, 20 March 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1869.

Retbenchjient in the matter of departmental expenditure is a virtue the possession of which is affected by every Provincial Government in the country. It is their chronic characteristic. " Parewell performances" on the stage, or " alarming sacrifices" and " closing sales " in the drapery trade are not more common as announcements in connection with soft goods and the drama than is the constantly recurring promise of " retrenchment " presented as a reason for a Provincial Government deserving popular approval. Unfortunately the popular faith in such announcements and promises has, in these later years of heresy, been severely shaken. They are such " old tales, and often told," that they fail to affect the human mind as they might have done in days before they came to be recognised as mere tricks of trade. The Government under whose cold shade the inhabitants of this district happen to live have been wise enough to discover this, and to adopt a different policy. They do not announce, with a flourish of trumpets, as the government of another Province have lately done, that they propose to retrench to the tune of some £12,000 a year. They retrench, and say nothing about it. It is a misfortune that, even with this modest mode of action, they do not get credit for sincerity. It is a pity that there should be found people so ungenerous as to insinuate that a Government so modest might be actuated by selfishness and partiality. Sub rosa, there have lately been one or two attempts at retrenchment by the Nelson Government which are received, by those who are in the secret, in this ungenerous spirit. There was lately an alteration made in the character of the Survey Staff, as " a measure of economy." The alteration was effected by some youths of Nelson birth or breeding being appointed as surveyors, and the ecomomy is achieved by the Government pocketing the fees—and these by no means small—imposed upon the diggers, and by their paying their suckling surveyors a probably paltry salary. Had the measure been one of economy to the miners as well as to the Government, its propriety might have been admitted; but, as it is, ordinary people cannot discover what there is in the Nelson gold-fields which precludes the adoption of the system which is now in force in the colony of Victoria, and which, after the Victorian example, is at present being adopted in the Province of Otago. About the same time, there was effected, " as a measure of economy," a considerable reduction in the numbers and pay of the Police on the South-west Goldfields. The reduction in both particulars was made immediately after the departure of Mr Kynnersley, and it was done very quietly. "We do not say that it was not also done "very fairly. The reduction was, however, thus far singular and anomalous—it was confined exclusively to the force on the Goldfields so far, at least, as concerns the number of men discharged. There was nothing said or done, if ever dreamt, as to a similar reduction being carried out in " Nelson and its suburbs," and will it be believed that, with its comparatively settled and pacific population, and with a consequently very limited range of police duties, Nelson has nearly as large, if not quite as large, a force of police as is maintained for the protection of life and property throughout the whole of the extensive and rugged district of the "West Coast ? No great public or particular notice of the matter was taken at the time, as people are naturally not dissatisfied with any effort being made in the direction of economy, and the members of tb» force themselves submitted silently to the reduction, on the faith, or, rather, in consequence of the direct promise that no further reduction would be made. They hear, however, with something like surprise, that the pruning-knife is to be applied again, and this time, as before, on the West Coast, which so fortunately or unfortunately exists as a field for the display of Messrs Curtis and Greenfield's dissecting and excising skill. Now, we are not going to champion the police force of the South-west Goldfields. There have been—if, fortunately, there

are not now—the very "weeds" of humanity in that force. But we may at least ash, on the part of a community which, from itß very KHilure, requires its police force to be one of especial excellence, if not also of great numbers, that the force shall be maintained in something like a state of efficiency, and in proportion to the strength of the force maintained in other parts of the Province. As at present constituted and paid, there is good reason for some dissatisfaction among the members of the force. The Inspector is, by a very large margin, in receipt of Icsb pay than gentlemen in similar situations. The Detective officer, whose exceptional duties justifybis being made comparatively independent of influences, is also paid on a lower scale than in such a similar district as that of Westland. So also, we believe, are the other officers and men. At any . rate, they would be so if the proposed retrenchment is carried out, taking it for granted that any one of tbem would continue in the service on a scale of pay lower than it is at present—a circumstance which we have reason to consider extremely doubtful. Much more we might and could say on this apparently more official or personal than public subject, but it may sufficiently answer all purposes if but a very slight allusion is made to it. The Superintendent and the Provincial Secretary, or whoever may be the constituent elements of that unique body, the Nelson Executive, will receive, whenever they deserve it, credit for their desire to retrench and economise; but they do not deserve it, and will not receive it, when those virtues are displayed only in an " outlying district" (as the richest goldfield in the colony has been happily designated,) and when they do not have their beginning—like the sister virtue of charity—at home.