RETRENCHMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2338, 5 July 1887, Page 2

RETRENCHMENT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Retrenchment is the order of the day, and in ray opinion is the only m»ans we should adopt for bringing our expenditure within our income, not only without additional taxation but oven at a much reduced annual income. Our Governmental expenditure has grown far beyond all reasonable bounds, and the “Tite Barnacles ” have increased and are increasing in every Government department of New Zealand to such an extent that, unless an immediate stop is i>nt to it, we, as a community, will bo (if wo are not now) ruled and governed by those who ought to be our servants, but are actually onr masters politically. Why has every Government that has been returned for the last eight years pledged themselves to reduce the expenditure in the Civil Service Departments, and each of them as signally failed ? The answer is, because they arc afraid of the Civil Service Departments 1 ' They have become so numerous a body that their votes are a consideration with every Ministry, and they dare not treat them as servants, but, on the contrary, have to continue them in office, on their own terms, so as to secure their votes and support politically ! Is not this a miserable state of affairs ? Let every elector in New Zealand put the question to himself: “Am I going to allow this thing to continue? ” If not, what is to be done to prevent it? I say pledge your members to move an amendment in the Electoral Act disfranchising all officers in the Civil Service who are in receipt of £l5O per annum or upwards from the Government. Then the Government in power not being dependent on them for their vote (“and their name is legion ”) can treat them as their servants without fear that if they make any retrenchment in the departments they (the “ Tito Barnacles ” all over New Zealand) will vote against them as one man. This is a power which should not be placed in the hands of any body of men receiving pay from the Government. I am myself very much opposed to depriving any man of his rights under the franchise ; but desperate cases require desperate remedies, and knowing that for the last 15 years the civil servants have always had an undue influence over the Government of the day, and have used it on many occasions to their own advantage and the addition of <mr taxation, I now propound this remedy, the disease being so desperate. I will on a future occasion, with your permission, take one or two of the departments with which I am acquainted, and endeavour to show where deductions might be made without injury to the public service, and in two or three of these departments a reduction of from 40 to 50 per cent, might he made without impairing their usefulness or efficiency.—l am, Sir, yours obediently, John Gwtnneth, C.E. Cambridge, July 4th.