PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 76, 31 March 1913, Page 5

PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM.

ACT COMES INTO FULL OPERATION TO-MORROW. I The principal policy Act of the Massey Administration last session—the Public Service Act—come.-; info full operation to-morrow. Under it the administration I of the public service of the Dominion is revolutionised, and for some months past the Chief Commissioner and his two assistant Commissioners have been collecting information and data against the introduction of the new service conditions under the. A<-t. The Commioeion will possess practically autocratic power during its seven years of office in s o far as the working and organisation of the service and the grading of officers is concerned, the Act making the Commissioner nominally responsible to Parliament, to which he is required to report annually. Under the new sclieme the Public 'Service is divided into four divieionr, consisting of the administrative, the professional, the clerical, and the general divisions, and drastic precautions are enjoined to eliminate the evil of

"political pull" by persons desirous of appointment or promotion. Appointments to the service will in future tie made at the discretion of the Commissioner after the candidates have been through the preliminary te*t of competitive exa.minutions, while all promotion is to go on individual merit, together with seniority, other 'tilings being equal. The right of appeal is given to officers feeling aggrieved ■witli any decision of the Commissioner, the board to hear any complaints respecting the working of the Act belntr composed of three persons, two of whom shall be appointed by the Governor, and of whom one must bo a member of the Public Service, and the third to he elected by the members of the Service. If the dispute concern an officer of the Post and i Telegraph Service, then the members of that branch shall elect the. Public Ser-; vice representative on the Hoard, and if j a member outside the Postal Department ■he affected, than the representative shall I foe elected by the remaining officers of the Service. The Act applies to every branch of the Public Service except the railway officers. At the time of its passage determined opposition to the in- ! elusion of the officers of the Post and j Telegraph Department was presented, , both within and without the House, but ', the objections advanced were overborne by the Government, and the branch I brought under the operation of the Act.