The Need for Economy.

A Great Example.

In advocating the establishment of a Public Service Board, Mr. Herdman lately quoted the following telling extract from the latest report of the New South Wales Public Service Board:—

"One of the greatest Chancellors of the Exchequer known in English history—viz., the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone—placed great importance upon the necessity for economy in public departments, even in small matters. A reference to this is made in the recently published 'Morley's Life of Gladstone,' the following extract from which deserves quotation. Morley says,—" 'It was not only in the finance of millions that he showed himself a hero. "The Chancellor of the Exchequer,' he (Gladstone) said, 'should boldly uphold economy in detail, and it is the mark of a chicken-hearted Chancellor when he shrinks from upholding economy in; detail; when, because it is a question of only two or three thousand pounds, he says that it is no matter. He is ridiculed, no doubt, for what is called candle-ends and cheese-parings; but he is not worth his salt if he is not ready to save what are meant by candle-ends and cheese-parings in the cause of the country.' He held it to be his special duty in his office not simply to abolish sinecures, but to watch for every opportunity of cutting down all unnecessary appointments. He hears that a clerk at the National Debt Office is at death's door, and on the instant writes to Lord Palmerston that there is no necessity to appoint a successor. 'My idea is that it would be quite worthwhile to appoint an official Committee from the various departments to go over the contingencies and minor charges of the different departments into which abuse must always be creeping from the nature of the case and without much blame to anyone.' "