The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2561, 8 December 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Eiiual and exact [ustice to all men, Ol whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. _ ________ SATURDAY, DEC. 8, 1888. -— » Somu sensation lias been caused by the action of the Government in appointing Mr Shannon, a wellknown Wellington merchant, to be Inspector of Soft Goods, at the lucrative salary of £800 per annum. Under the Customs Duties Act of last session, which inflicted such an outrageous tariff upon this heavilytaxed' country, the services of an expert appears to be rendered necessary to classify the imports under the" heading of soft goods. This process is as much in the interest of importers as of the revenue, in order to obviate any errors in the amount of duty to be collected. The advisability of securing the services of an experienced man for that purpose is admitted ; but the Government are very properly taken to task for creating such a highly paid office in the present circumstances of the colony. Numbers of thoroughly qualified men who have been trained in all the branches of a wholesale warehouse could be obtained for a third of the pay. _ It does seem a most extraordinary thing that in this debt-ridden country the position of a guager should be raised to such a height of importance and emolument as to justify the lucky occupant payment at the rate of £800 a year, when under the usual condition of things, a man with everv knowledge of the duties required would be considered well recompensed on .£l'">o a year. In the face of the pressing demands for large reductions in the dimensions 1 unci cost of the Civil Service, and in 3 the whole of the public expenditure ; =' in the face of the loud professions B of substantial retrenchment which 1 the Government claim to have i effected and are still bent on effectf in«, it does appear an indecent m- [ consistency, a defiance of the public wish, and a shameless abuse of trust, that a new and highly paid office has been created by this Go- ' vernment, equal in pay to that received by a Cabinet Minister, The

country hits been hoping to see the salaries of the high officers reduced and many of the appointments abolished. The colony is not in the humour for seeing them, on the contrary, increased. The tariff is hard enough to bear as it is without additional features of an obnoxious character being imparted to it by making it a pretext for perpetrating political jobberies. This Shannon appointment affords us another instance of the utter unreliability of our pub-1 lie men to administer the affairs of the country wisely and to carry out the will "of the people, when even the Atkinson Ministry, who boast; of the purity of their intentions and the vast amount of good work they have done towards restoring the financial equilibrium of the colony, gives such a glaring proof of the same old, apparently irraclieable, ruling passion for corruption. As the Star truly observes " such conduct on the part of the Government at the present time gives one, indeed, a sickening feeling of despair regarding the future of New Zealand."