The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-06
QUEER BRITISH PENSIONS.

That Have Been Abolished.
 The government like any great con-
 cern in commerce, is constantly face tc
 face with the necessity of reducing ol
 rearranglng its staffs, and it contrib
 utes periodically to the great army of
 unemployed
 It is inevitable. The operation of ev- cry important new law involves admin
 istrative changes which throw White
 hall into temporary chaos and necessl-
 tate the abolition or reconstruction of certain offices,
 And in such cases somebody must go. Somebody who has sat on govern ment stool for twenty years receives the intimaton that his stool is done
 with. It is a common delusion that there is no insecurity in government posts. There is, of course, much more than ordinary security, but even a government post sometimes comes to an end, through no fault of the man who holds it, and there are hundreds perhaps thousands-of people who are to-day idle through the operation of laws passed by parliament.
 But if there is no perpetuity of work under the government, there is what many people will think a great deal better-perpetuity of pay.
 "Once paid, always paid is the hap py condition of thousands of govern- ment employees. Hundreds of thou- sands of pounds are paid from the pub lie purse every year to people who do nothing at all for it.
 They may have sat on government stools years and years ago; they may have cooked prison food at Dartmoor; | they may have been judges or chap lains in some little corner of the em- pire, where they are no longer wantd. They may have been housekeepers, laundresses, jailers, laborers ministers, governors, consuls. It matters not. Our generous government compensates | them all.
 | It gives us a very kindly feeling to- ward our government system to re- member that the crown is still paying about one hundred pounds a year to laundresses and housekeepers who lost | their washing and housekeeping | through the removal of the, law courts from Westminster Hall twenty years ago.
 There is field laborer somewhere who has received twelve and one-half guineas year for a quarter of cen- tury because the official surveyors of the United Kingdom had nothing more for him to do.
 Even the House of Lords abolishes something sometimes, and seventeen years ago it made up it's mind to really big effort, and abolished the housekeeper of it's crown office, who has received thirteen pounds year ever since.
 And the queens sweep, too, whose of- fee was demolished to make way for the parliament street improvements was given the handsome sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, in spite of the fact that he may still go on sweep ing the chlmneys of Buckingham Pal ace and Windsor Castle, as his family has done for a century and half.
 The abolition of consulships, chap lancies and judgeships abroad during the last thirty years is still costing the treasury several thousands year in compensation, and it is surprising to
  ing the strain caused upon it by the changes consequent upon the setting up of the divorce court in the fifties
 The courts of justice, where changes have been frequent, pay a good deal more than twenty thousand pounds a year to men who have been thrown idle by changes in the administration of justice, The Chancery division, for ex- ample, has for several years past sent a check for f1fty-five pounds to an old man, who, through the operation of some new act, was deprived of the priv i1ege of selling forms at the court.
 There are on the compensation list of the same court preacher at rolls,' receiving one hundred pounds a year, though he never breaches a sermon; a housekeeper who has not kept house for seventeen years, but receives twen- ty-five pounds year. and a caretaker who draws ten pound Bank of Eng land note for annually taking care of nothing.
 All these people, be it remembered are distinct from the old age pensioners of the government, who come under another head. Most of them are still able and willing to work when some thing turns up, and all of them have been the victims-the lucky victims, very often--of some act of parliament or some administrative change.
 It may seem stroke of good fortune to be thrown out of work by law, and often enough it is. The consul at St. | who was sent home with 1 one thousand pounds a year, because | there was no room for him in Anglo | Russian diplomacy, is no doubt well i satisfied.
 The retent office decided six years | ago to do without a superintendent of | and that official who had | been in receipt of one thousand pounds a year, was given two hundred and if ty pounds a year to stay at home; but l here was distinct saving of seven | hundred and fifty pounds year. which inflicted little real hardship | on anybody.
 Whether the recipients of the state appreciate their release from work or not they accept it, know |