THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 13, 15 January 1918, Page 5

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

SIR JOSEPH WARD'S WARNING. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Sir Joseph Ward's advice to the. membere of the Civil Service to make- the best of the conditions brought upon them by the war, rather than to seek better conditions by placing additional taxation upon the country during the present crisis, is .being received in good I part by most of the people immediately | concerned. The Minister's hint that an agitation for bigger salaries might result in a clamour for retrenchment of a very ; drastic character has not been without effect. Though few members of the Service are prepared to admit that their own Departments are overstaffed, many of them have confessed that a thorough businesslike reorganisation might reeulS very unpleasantly for some of their nurn"ber. Even as it is, there are zealous reformers urging that after the War Expenditure Commission has concluded its labours in connection with the Defence Department it might be directed, with much profit to the country, to look into the coet arid administration of some other Departments. The mere suggestion of such a thing vnth .memories of what occurred in 1880, has ibeen sufficient to silence some no7sy member* of the Service.