The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2485, 14 June 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1888.

Enual and exact justice to all men, Ot whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

It is clear that the " roar " for retrenchment has not yet abated. The Financial Statement demonstrated so forcibly that the colony is in a very critical situation that the people are led to renew the cry for more retrenchment, in order to avert a national catasrophe, When poor Oliver Twist demanded " more," it was to appease the craving of a pinched stomach. We, however, still cry for " more " as a relief from the stupendous effects of the long period of feasting that has covered the colonial body politic with unnatural weight, necessitating tho adoption of a course of rigid reduction on the Banting plan. The work of retrenchment is by no means complete. This is admitted by the Government, who propose to make several alterations in its public service that will reduce its cost, the abolition of the Public Works Department and Native Office being a feature in their proposals. Nevertheless the country does not feel satisfied that all is being done that can be in the direction of equalising the expenditure with the revenue. Tho Colonial Treasurer lays an iron

hand on the people, to grind out of them more money by taxation. The measures he has introduced will very severely strain, not only the industry arid trade of the country, but will put to the utmost limit the patience and forebearanoe of the people. The relative merits or demerits of free-trade and protection may here be entirely set aside. Wo are face to face with a heavy increase of taxation, and it is a matter of grave doubt whether the increased Customs duties will either produce' the amount ot" revenue expected by thri Colonial Treasurer, or will inspire the people of New Zealand with new hopes and confidence. The population of the colony is a little over 600,000, of whom perhaps not more than a fourth are actual tax-payer?; yet this small number of colonists have to provide the large sum of nearly four millions to carry on the cost of governing the country, and meeting engagements entered intoforextravagagant purposes. Half this annual revenue, or more than £1,800,000, is swelled up in interest payable to the British money-lenders, who have advanced us the millions we have squandered and are still wasting. With all the new additional taxation through the Tariff, the customs will fail to yield, by a large margin, the amount required for interest alone, yet it is through the customs that we generally hope to obtain the bulk of our revenue for ordinary purposes. In all probability the import trade will fall off, then what will our position be ? Thero is nothing for it but absolute economy in our administrative system in every possible direction. If we do not economise, in the fullest sense of the term, we shall find ourselves in a very short time at the brink of national disgrace and disaster. There must be a thorough re-organisation of governing 4 machinery. When people pause to think, as they are now forced to do, that besides paying the immense sum for interest, another two millions are required to administer the public affairs of little more than half a million souls, they stand aghast at the ugly truth. It may appear like treason to repeat it, but many colonists in their sober senses give expression to the wish for the Imperial Government to take over the management of the colony.

The Civil Service is a veritable octopus overspreading the land, and its sinuous tentacles must be lopped closely. The reductions which have already taken place have been performed, in too many cases, most unfairly and without regard to system. The recipients of small salaries have either had their pay curtailed to a disproportionate extent, or the unfortunate officers have been turned adrift altogether ; but the mighty under-secretaries, the swell chief clerks in the enjoyment of their £800, i : 700 and £600 a year, have only been called upon to suffer hardships to the extent of existing on £50 less per annum, notwithstanding the fact that the cost of living has been for the last two years, and still is fifty per cent, lower than formerly. But those gentry are tap it, far too sacred to be approached by the pruning knife of even a Minister who has to obey the will of the people. In the pressing circumstances of the colony and the increased taxation of the people, none of those officials ought to receive higher salaries than £(500 a year, and all should be reduced twonty-fivo per cent. Our education system is also too costly a luxury for our circumstances and. should be curtailed. It will be impossible for the colony to afford such an outlay as the system entails, and to free itself from the burden and still encourage the education of the peoplo, the aid of denominationalism will have to be called in.

Then again another source of expense and loss to the colony are the railways. We have run into the construction of lines without discrimination or forethought until wo have awoke to the fact that we have very much overdone the thing, and have on our hands a huge and unprofitable system, a veritable Old Man of the Sea, that is breaking the neck of the colony and strangling settlement. Our railways are, as a whole, a luxury, and if the Government will not alter the policy in connection with them, and will persist in manipulating them for purely revenue purposes in place of as an incentive to the successful development of the country, then, like merchants who are running a losing business, we must economise the establishment, and return to something approaching the simplicity of old times. There are neither passengers travelling to fill trains, nor traffic to pay for haulage, and it is both unwise and expensive to run empty trains day after day. We have given this phase of our position great consideration for some time back, and, in view of the existing railway policy, which appears un alterable, and the economic necessities of the country, we have come to the conclusion that the running of daily and bi-daily trains to the Waikato should be suspeuded. If the department cannot fill a train every day, and it is declared that it does not pay to run a train unless it is full, then they may succeed better by running a tri-weekly train service. A daily service from Auckland to Huntly is, no doubt, necessary and warranted by the exI tent of the coal mining industry in that district. Beyond that to all points on the Waikato lines, a tri-weekly passenger and bi-weekly traffic services would meet all the requirements of the present time. The question of mail communication, however, could Ijo met by organising a trolly service from Huntly to Hamilton on the intervening days, and thence to To Awamutu, Cambridge and Te Aroha respectively. The saving such a plan would effect would be very groat, as the whole staff could

be very much reduced, and the cost of haulage minimised to a considerable extent. Many thousands of pounds could be saved to the country, if these proposals were adopted in this and other parts of the colony, whilst we would be denying ourselves a luxury we can no longer afford.