Of the £9,000 per annum propoeed to be saved by retrenchment in the Land and Survey Departments, £6,500 is Bayed by the amalgamation of those departments and £2,500 by reductions in the Stock De partment. Ten stock inspectors and one clerk aro to be desponsed with ; the stock districts are to be enlargod and placed under the remaining inspectors. In the Land and Survey Departments 33 officers will be retrenched. Mr Percy Smith will remain at the head of the Survey Depart ment, Mr Baron becomes Under-Secretary of Lands, and Mr Huntley Eliotb Under secretary of Mines. It is proposed to transfer five of the Crown Lands Commis sioners, Messrs Humphreys (Auckland), Marchanb (Wellington), Baker (Christ church), Mueller (Westland), and Spence (Invercargill), and it is announced that the number of judges in the Native Land Court will bo reduced from thirteen to eight. It i 9 proposed to divide the North, for the purposes of the Native Land Court, into circuits, each in charge of one judge. The Justice Department is to be dealt with in a day or two. It is calculated that so far the retrenchment effected by the present Government amounts to £50,000 per annum. The Auckland branch of the Land and Survey Department has come in for its full share of retrenchment under the recent ap plication of the Government pruning knife. It is rumoured than Mr Humphreys, head of the Auckland office, has been transferred to Southland, and that Mr Moeller, from the Wesb Coast, is to take his place here. No less than seven officers have been retrenched in the Auckland districb, but as the Government have refrained from publishing names until the officers affected have received official intimation that their services have been dispensed with, some difficulty has been experienced in ascertain ing who are the sufferers. We understand thab those Auckland officers who have already received notice include Mr Sturte vent, senior, in the Lands Transfer depart ment of the Deeds Office, who is a very old Governmentofficer ; MrFraser, caretaker of the VVaitomo caves ; two temporary clerks in the Land office, and one acting ranger.
