Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1930. THE COLONIAL SERVICE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 171, 3 May 1930, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1930. THE COLONIAL SERVICE.

The report of the committee that has been consuloiin# the subject of the Colonial Service deals with a subject of yrent interest to the student of Empire development. Thought of the past is induced, thought of the vigorous days when even the adult Dominions were no more than tiny children of the Motherland, not even as important assume of the colonies now treadin£>; close oil the heels! ot the stalwart countries linying* selfooverntnj>‘ responsibilities. tbit of that past come, one after another, these products of the British wanderlust emerging from vague activities in Dade and venturous planting of national institutions, until they get distinct places on the map and in the records of the Colonial Office. More spheres, of influence at first, then getting chartered recognition of rights to protection and support, and so becoming at length Crown Colonies, these offshoots of the family tree arise and grow, until the wisdom of granting them an enlarging measure of political freedom no longer needs argument, and they gain increasing administrative self-direction. .' This brings reminder of the important fact that all this marvellous development, far from complete as yet hut characterised by many notable happenings, is due in ihe main to the human factor. Every territorial addition to the British realm owes its origin to the adventurous spirit; of some man nr group of men who left home and kindred at the impelling urge to seek life under a foreign sky, not often because they were thrust out by irksome conditions but as a rule by an inborn eagerness to find new expression in another clime for ideas begotten at home. There was many such a “little grey company before live pioneers,’’ threading a way through a trackless waste ere followed those whose task it was to build the bridge and drive the road : and when those successors had played their part there were needed those others —the liringers of law and order, and the fashioners of the links that make up the administrative chain holding the Empire securely together. The administrative record is one of which the Empire may he justly proud, but there have been exceptions to the general rule. It was with the object of ensuring that as far as is humanly possible the Colonial Service should be of a calibre equal to the important demands made upon its personnel that the committee was appointed. Its recommendations regarding the

system of appointment-are based on light lines. "With the model of the Indian Civil Service as an inspiration, the Colonial Service should be brought up to the highest possible standard, so that the utmost assurance will be forthcoming* that the _ ranks of officials, even subordinate officials, shall be filled with competent and trustworthy men. This will entail strict control of entry to the service and fully adequate over-sight of work after appointment. It is not too much to expect in an age that is awakened to a sense of responsibility in governing what were once outlying 1 parts of the Empire, but are rapidly ceasing* to be seriously remote.