CO129-262 - Governor Sir Robinson Acting Governor O-Brien - 1894 [1-4] — Page 506

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vileged to hold. During the interval I have received several promotions in recognition of what has been considered good service, and the pecuniary result of this to me is that after eighteen years of what has been for the most part repeatedly characterised by my superiors as exceptionally hard work, I have gained a substantial loss of salary. (Laughter.) That is, sir, I think, anomalous. But the hardship in my case is insignificant as compared with that of those of my brother civil servants whose salaries are smaller than mine, and who either now have, or in the future may have, children to educate, or a wife to support in England; and on their behalf I have no hesitation in commending the proposal to the consideration of the Council with some confidence. I know of one case in which an officer is privately, that is to say at the current rate of exchange, remitting for such purposes more than the whole of his salary. Fortunately he has some private means, but the hardship is nevertheless excessive. The proposal, if agreed to, will be carried into effect as from the beginning of the current year. It is contingent on the concurrence of the Council, and my motion is made with the object of eliciting the opinions of the unofficial members. The question will be put to the vote, but the official members will abstain from voting. With those observations, sir, I beg to move—"That it is desirable to give effect to the suggestion of the Secretary of State for the Colonies that, in view of the fall in exchange, those of the Civil Servants who are domiciled in the United Kingdom or other countries having a gold currency, and are willing to draw their salaries when on leave at the rate of 3/- to the dollar, should be granted such a non-pensionable allowance as will make half of their salaries while on active service equivalent to half of their present salaries calculated at the rate 4½d. to the dollar."

The COLONIAL TREASURER—I rise, sir, to second, as a matter of form, this motion. As the Colonial Secretary has already informed the Council, the officials do not intend to vote on this question. The Colonial Secretary has already drawn attention to the number of those who have declined the offer for various reasons, and the only point I wish to make clear is that it is not as a matter of fact the case—I do not mean to say that the Colonial Secretary said that it was—that all the married officers desire to accept the offer. Among the 197 who have absolutely declined are officers having wives and having children.

Hon. C. P. CHATER—I beg, sir, to move as an amendment that the consideration of this question be postponed until the Retrenchment Commission asked for in our memorandum dated January 12th, 1893, has been appointed and until the Council has had an opportunity of carefully considering the report of such Commission. I may preface my remarks on this subject by stating at once that the amendment which I have just proposed is the outcome of a meeting of the unofficial members at which we discussed the motion of the hon. Colonial Secretary and we came to a unanimous decision as to what we considered under the circumstances we should do in this matter. There can, we think, be no doubt that in view of the material fall in the gold value of silver some steps should be taken in regard to a revision of salaries, but we submit that the present is not a good opportunity for doing so. The motion made by the hon. Colonial Secretary by instruction of the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, if agreed to would entail a considerable increase in the expenditure of the Colony, and that at a time when our revenue is unable to meet it, for it will be remembered that our estimates for this year were only balanced by taking too high a rate of exchange for our sterling engagements, and if at the present moment we were to take the current rate of the day for our remittances there would be a considerable balance on the wrong side. Such being the case we feel that we are unable to increase our expenditure without having effected corresponding economies, and now ask your Excellency for the appointment of a Retrenchment Commission, which, by taking such steps as the recommendation of the amalgamation of certain offices and the reduction of the staff in others, would so decrease our expenses as to enable us to consider the motion before us. But, sir, until that is done we are unable to in any way give our assent to any proposal entailing an increased burden of expenditure on the Colony.

Hon. J. J. KESWICK—I rise, sir, to second the amendment which has been proposed by my friend opposite (Hon. C. P. Chater). In doing so I may say that every unofficial member, and I daresay the public at large, will agree with what he has said and what the hon. Colonial Secretary also has said with reference to the desirability of compensating the public servants for the loss they sustain through the depreciation in the value of silver in relation to gold. It is not, however, sir, a question of sentiment or of what we would do, but it is a question of what we can do. And we must in the first place ascertain what we can spend before we decide upon spending it. It is not very long since at this table we considered the budget for 1894. The budget for 1894 was based as regards our sterling remittances on 3s. 2d. to the dollar. The quotation to-day is something under 2s., or let me say in round figures 20 per cent. less than it then was. One item alone, namely, the responsibility this Colony has to the War Office, has greatly increased and the decline in exchange which has since taken place makes a difference of somewhere in the neighbourhood of between $80,000 and $95,000 on the £10,000 for which we are liable. That, sir, is a very large item

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and is only representative of a great many others which cannot fail to show that the condition of our expenses measured by the present rate of exchange as compared to that at the time the budget was considered, show a marked and very grave difference. I therefore, sir, feel that while the unofficial members have the very greatest desire to meet the public servants on this important matter it is right and proper in the first place that we should understand precisely how we stand, and the Retrenchment Commission which has been asked for, and which we hope your Excellency will soon be able to appoint, will furnish us with the information necessary to enable us to proceed to the discussion of this question. I have pleasure in seconding the amendment.

the taxpayers of this Colony the scapegoats for the folly of pursuing a gold policy in the teeth of advice and protest. I would ask his Lordship to try the only true remedy by going to the origin of the evil, to remonetize silver, and thus relieve Her Majesty's subjects in every part of the world, who are all suffering in some way or another from the effects of past financial errors,

Hon. Ho Kai—I think that perhaps I am expected to say something on this important motion and the still more important amendment. It was only a few days ago that I gave a very reluctant consent to the amendment that has been brought forward to-day by the senior unofficial member and after hearing the eloquent appeal, and just appeal, of the hon. Colonial Secretary it is with more regret still that I support the amendment. I have the fullest sympathy with the public officers who suffer from the present condition of things and I wish cordially with every unofficial member that we could comply with their request not only by making the dollar 3s. but if possible to give them, as it were, what they are justly entitled to—a dollar at 4s. 2d. But at the same time, sir, we know that we have been suffering during the last few years from depression of trade, from the want of funds in the Colony, and it is a matter for our consideration whether we can carry out our engagements at all without the necessity of raising more loans. Take the case of the military contribution for an example. There we not only have an increase of £20,000 but we have to pay that increase at a very much higher rate so far as the dollar is concerned. Instead of paying as it were $5 to the pound we are now paying something over $10, and

Hon. E. R. BALL—It is with sincere regret I feel compelled to support the amendment just proposed. The civil servants who are suffering from shrinkage of their incomes, owing to the appreciation of gold, have my warm sympathy; but, sir, this is a common grievance, and a calamity, which affects not a section or a class but more or less every resident in the Colony. High and low, rich and poor, European or Asiatic, all experience the pinch, all are affected, directly or indirectly, by the abnormal enhancement in the value of the yellow metal. Why, therefore, should we be asked to come to the rescue of the civil service alone when no effort is made to extricate us, the majority of the sufferers, from this "slough of despond"? The better course, I think, would be for us, official and unofficial, to make common cause to bring about a cure for this currency trouble. Let us cry out, as did the Egyptians of old, when in consequence of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart the plagues came upon them until they culminated in the death of the first-born throughout the land.

"There was a cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." That grand climax brought relief through the very strength of the lamentations it excited. I maintain that the climax of our financial miseries has now been reached, and it is time that all classes of the community, whether civil servants or those engaged in trade or commerce, should join to make a vigorous representation to the Imperial Government praying that measures be taken to procure an efficient remedy for the evil that has resulted from the demonetization of silver. Instead of sending out such absurd instructions—I say absurd because I hold that the revenue of the Colony, after the commitments we have made in gold, cannot stand the burden that will be cast upon it—instead, therefore, of sending such instructions as this, I think the Secretary of State should rather set to work and endeavour to induce his colleagues to hearken to the petitions and deputations that have urged and are urging the advisability of arranging this silver difficulty by international agreement. In

stead of seeking, by the course proposed, to make the taxpayers of this Colony the scapegoats for the folly of pursuing a gold policy in the teeth of advice and protest. I would ask his Lordship to try the only true remedy by going to the origin of the evil, to remonetize silver, and thus relieve Her Majesty's subjects in every part of the world, who are all suffering in some way or another from the effects of past financial errors,

to vote any increase. But at the same time after the Retrenchment Commission has been appointed—and I hope they will go to work as soon as they are appointed—no doubt they will be able to say that we can abolish a good many offices and amalgamate others, and in that case we can not only save money but be able to pay larger amount of salary to those officers who render to the Colony the most valuable and indispensable services (Hear, hear). In that case their salaries might be increased by 50 or even 100 per cent., and in that case I would strongly support a proposition that the officers who are deemed most valuable should have their salaries increased even to as much as 100 per cent. For those reasons I much regret to have to support the amendment. It seems very ungrateful on one part and perhaps some of the official members would think that we are very mean (laughter)—but still I assure them that we are not mean at all (laughter)—and we fully sympathise with them. I would like to do the thing right handsomely if we had the means. (Renewed laughter).

The COLONIAL SECRETARY—Sir, as I understand

(To be continued)

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