MORE 'STUFFING' STATISTICS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 11, 13 March 1902, Page 2

MORE 'STUFFING' STATISTICS.

The following further returns from Christohuroh give fuller confirmation, if such were needed, to the fact that both in relative number and pay Catholics are represented in the public service in a proportion far below their percentage in the total population of the Colony. The lists given hereunder are made up from the estimates for the year ending March 31, 1902 :—: — Public Trust Office.— District agent, salary, £350 per annum ; clerk, £150 ; clerk (Catholic), £60 ; cadet, £52. There is only one Catholic in the office. Government Life Insurance. — District manager, total salary, £475 per annum ; clerk (Accident), £250 ; clerk, £150 ; cadet, £70. All are non- Catholics . Customs, Lyttelton and | Christehurch.— Collector, £525 per annum ; landing surveyor, £350 ; first clerk, £280 ; clerk, £160 ; clerk, £125 ; two clerks, £105 each ; cadet, £75 ; cadet (Catholic), £65 ; tide surveyor, £250 ; warehouse keeper, £175 ; landing waiter and examining officer, £245 ; three others, £230, £220 £190 ; two do (writer), £187 eaoh ; looker (Catholic), 9s per day ; 1 do, 8s per day ; boatman, £145 a year ; messenger, £146. Thia gives a total of 21 employes, of whom only two, or less than one in ten, are Catholics. The total amount of public moneys drawn by those 21 employes is £3925 4s per annum. Of thia amount the two Catholics receive only £205 Bs, or £1 in every £19 2a 2d paid in wages and in salaries in the Lyttelton and Christoburoh Cußtomi, Here is * stuffing ' with a vengeance I Thus far we have catalogued in detail, and one iby one, 348 employes of the public service (including the police force) in Christchurch. Of this number only 40, or a little over one in every ten, are Catholios. We have not yet been able to work out in detail the proportion of public moneys which these reoeive in wages and salaries, but all the figures that we receive from time to time strengthen our previously expressed conviction that they draw lees than £1 in every £15 expended locally under these heads. The fact-shy retailers of the 'stuffiing' legend must go further afield

than Christchnroh for the evidence which repeated public challenges have failed to induce them to produce. We hope after a ehort delay to be able to publish final figures and a general sum-ming-up of the position of Catholios in the public sarvice in and around Ohristchurch. THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND. The more we pursue this subject the more we are Btruck with the small number of Catholics in the various brandies of the Civil Service and at the leckleßsness and utter disregard for truth displayed by those who state or insinuate that the public service is ' stuffed ' with Catholics. So far as we have gone we have been able to show that in many departments our co-religionists are practically unrepresented exoept by a minor official or cadet, and that in none of them are they in proportion to their numbers in the population. In connection with the Department of Justice in Otago and Southland, there are 6 Stipendiary Magistrates — 1 at £550 a year, 2at £475 each, lat £450, 2at £425 each. The clerks of court number 14, the salaries per annum being as follows :— 1 at £325, lat £275, lat £265, 3at £240 each, lat £220, lat £210, lat £190, 2 at £170 each, lat £160, 2at £120 each. There are 8 cadets— l at £105 per annum, lat £100, 3at £85 each, 2at £75 each, and 1 at £50. In the same districts there are 6 bailiffs and assistant bailiffs, 2 receiving yearly salaries of £160 each, another £155, one £140, one £120, and one £60. The total amount of these salaries is £7200, and of this the magistrates draw £2800, or more than one third. These are all non-Catholics. Of the 32 positions referred to only two are filled by officers who are known to be Catholics ; that is, 1 in 16, although we are 1 in 7 of the general (population. The combined salaries of these two officers amount to £380 per annum. For every £19 drawn by the total number of officers of the Justice Department in the provincial districts of Otago and Southland the Catholics draw £1. This is an example of ' stuffing,' but our co-religionists do noc seem to have benefited by it.