NO MORE RED TAPE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 203, 28 August 1934, Page 6

NO MORE RED TAPE?

The comforting assurance is given by the Lord Mayor of Bristol, an ex-civil servant, that what was formerly known as "circumlocution" htifi. greatly diminished, and is rapidly disappearing from the service (says the "Manchester Guardian"). A civil servant is no longer, he says, a mere purveyor of red tape. After this satisfying announcement it may be permissible to recall without ill-feeling the bad old days before official red-tape began its "disappearing."

During the Boer War the War Office was responsible for incidents that it would be difficult to parallel for ineptitude. Sixty-four horses were bought at Preston, but as some of them had not been broken in it was thought desirable that a Government inspector should examine them. It happened that the official was at Carlisle at the time, but instead of ordering him, by letter or telegram, to go to Preston the authorities at Whitehall sent the sixty-four horses to Carlisle by train to be examined there. Tho cost was something over £100, but a £5 note would have covered the iii'specting officer's return fare to Preston and his expenses as well.

About the same time a Manchester shipping firm ofl'ered two vessels for transport purposes and suggested that a surveyor might be sent to Simderland, where they were berthed, to see if they were suitable. The War Office replied that the ships must be sent to London for inspection. One of the vessels, the Ohio, was sent to the Thames, where a surveyor had a look at her, and reported that ehe was too large. The other ship, the Remo, was dispatched to the Thames by request, but she was found to be too small. Yet the Ohio and the Eemo wore sister ships! But many private firms are just as foolish, like the engineering company which was told that the locomotives they had offered to the Government of New Zealand were too heavy for the bridges, and replied that they had no others, but suggested that the bridges should be rebuilt ' > suit the engines.