The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.
Thursday, July 10, 1890. HOLDING ON BY THE HEELS.
Be jns-t an<l fear not; Let a’l the ends thou alm’st at be thy country Thy (lod'e, and truth’u;
The Sick-man Government keeps up its record. Anything for office, is the principle worked upon. Dignity is gallantly stood upon until there comes a danger that the high horse may throw its rider. Then instead of boldly urging him on to clear the obstacles, and accepting as a matter of course whatever risk there may be, the rider meekly dismounts, and tries to entice the animal over by shaking the hat and making believe there is corn in it. When the Government found that Parliament was determined to have no shuffling on the questio.i of retrenchment they meekly swallowed their former declarations and agreed to make the reductions asked for, but without responsibility for inconvenience that might arise. A Government that will retain office under such humiliating conditions is capable of anything so that the loved spoils of office may be retained. Things have almost come to the pass that the members of the Opposition are the Government, though the miserable set of administrators now in office are permitted, in virtue of their humbleness, to draw the salaries allowed to Ministers. The next thing we will be told is that the reduction cannot be made without great inconvenience aris-
ing in the public service, and if it is given effect to as some past reductions have been, we have no hesitation in saying there will be very great inconvenience indeed. If the electors sub-1 mit to anv more of the sort of retrench-1 ment that has lately been practised, they will deserve the penalty they have to pay for it. What kind of retrenchment, we ask, was it that Jed to Mr Blackett receiving the appointment of inspector of material in England, just at a time when we were ceasing to import material ? Why is it that two splendid billets have, in these “retrenching ” davs, been provided for Messrs Blackett and O’Connor, when formerly, in days when there was really work to be done, the offices were all under Mr Blackett’s sole charge? Why was it found necessary to appoint a new Supreme Court Judge, even before it was known that Mr Justice Richmond would be compelled to take a change of air, and a lengthened rest ?_ What is Sir James Hector doing for his £<Soo a year ? Such questions might be added to bj' innumerable others, all tending to the same conclusion, were it not that the few that have been asked are, without even waiting for an answer, sufficient proof of the mockery that has been attempted. Unfortunate telegraph clerks and railway employees may have been ground down until they have risen in self-defence, but the big fish have had a jolly time of it. No Government ever had a better opportunity to honestly retrench than had the present Government, backed up as they were by the unanimous voice of public opinion, but while there was a great deal done —no more than any Government would have been compelled to do —we have innumerable instances of fortunate officials of high degree luxuriating at the public expense.
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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 478, 10 July 1890, Page 2
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550The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, July 10, 1890. HOLDING ON BY THE HEELS. Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 478, 10 July 1890, Page 2
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