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cost to the Colony, for the annual estimates are necessarily framed on the direct probable rate of exchange, and the rise in the dollar saved the Colony so much on the remittances, and this moreover at a time when the government is profiting by the higher rate in respect of remittances to England.
We submit that salaries must bear some definite relation to the cost of living in the Colony in which they are paid, and that they should be subject to fluctuation; in the same way pensions to officers in a gold country should be paid in gold, or they also will be subject to fluctuation. That the proper system of payment of salaries to civil servants should be in order to satisfy these two essential conditions, it is not for us at the present moment to suggest, but we submit that the defects in the existing system which the recent fluctuations in silver have revealed are so serious that they can only be met satisfactorily by a revision of the scheme of salaries.
The hardship from which the civil service is suffering is great, and we are confident that the Government will act now as it has acted in the past, and take the necessary measures to meet the loss which has already been suffered, and to restore equilibrium for the future. We cannot regard a further rise in silver, and consequent further depreciation of salaries with any feelings but those of anxiety.
10.
In justification of the statement made in the foregoing paragraphs that this basis of expenditure in the Colony is a 1/ dollar, we venture to draw attention to the fact that the estimates for the years 1904, 1905 and 1906 were framed on this rate. The result has been that the Government has made large savings out of the salaries of its servants.
In 1905 this saving amounted to about $260,000 and for this year it will probably amount to $350,000.
11.
It is often said that the question of salary is a mere matter of contract; and that having accepted it the rough as well as the smooth must be taken without complaint. We submit that