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The Press. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1897. THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE.

The Army and Navy, invested with all the pomp and circumstance of war, have been much in the public eye during the Year of Jubilee. But the work of the great silent and industrious army of Civil Servants, though mostly performed in an obscurity which is seldom penetrated by the sunshine of popular appreciation, has contributed in no less degree to the successes of the reign. And they, too, have received-their meed of praise at the hands of Lord Dufferin, than whom, though he described himself modestly as but "the ghost of an exofficial revisiting the glimpses of the moon," no man in England is better fitted by his experience to know of them, or by his eloquence to speak of them. At the recent annual Civil Service dinner at the Hotel Cecil, in proposing the toast of the evening, he delivered one of his felicitous speeches, in which he paid a warm and grateful tribute to this little appreciated body of public servants, and described their virtues, accounted for their worth, and set forth their ideals in terms that politicians in New Zealand would do well to take to heart and ponder over. He was able to say with truth of the English Civil Service that the supreme sense of duty which is the distinctive note of British character, the pride of their status and profession, the esprit de corps which permeates the entire service, created for its guidance and conduct such an atmosphere of incorruptible and disinterested purity, " that no taint or suspicion of venality has ever attached itself to any of its members." There are probably few countries in which such praise could be given to the Civil Service ; and in the truth of the compliment li«s more than half of the secret of England's greatness to-day. It is this fact which makes the English system of party government possible and practicable. The essential feature of that system is that the policy and administration of the country repose in two distinct classes. On the one hand are the politicians, men qualified by their large converse with whatever is influential and intelligent in public opinion, and by their Parliamentary talents able to determine the general lines along which/the destinies of the country should bo led. These are .able to beset up and put down, changed and substituted with every alteration in the political views of the people. On the other is the permanent service, consisting of trained experts and specialists, intimately conversant with the historical traditions of their own department, and with the minutest details of the subjects in which they are concerned. It is only with the assistance of the latter class that the former are able to embody their ideas in concrete form, to endow thorn with practical and beneficial effect in living legislative Acts. It is owing to this happy division of labour, this unique combination of talents and experience, so diversified, that the country can apply whatever political talent the age produces in whatever way it pleases without its freedom of choice being limited by the special aptitudes of particular Statesmen. A Prime Minister can, as Lord Dufferin said, "pitchfork his colleagues into whatever holes may suit his convenience, confident that, under the prudent tutelage of the permanent service, the person to whom he confides a post, provided only he bo possessed of the requisite amount of good sense and general intelligence, will soon find himself as much at home in one office as another. Moreover power can pass from one Parliamentary party to another without the slightest disturbance of the administrative system. In fact," said Lord Dufferin, " the whole machine continues to work as smoothly, and perhaps even more smoothly, during an interregnum as under the auspices of the most energetic Cabinet "

Ability in the service would not alone produce such results, there must be besides absolute incorruptibility. Each successive Government knows that the zeal, fidelity, and loyalty of the Civil Service to the chiefs successively assigned by the will of the people are as unbroken, as true-hearted and as persistent under one regime as another. Lord Duff.ei.ik, from his experience of the Home Service in England, of the Indian Civil Service in Calcutta, and of the Diplomatic Service in Constantinople, has had every means of forming a just and accurate opinion ; and his praise may be taken as literally true and substantially deserved. And the absence of venality in the service is the direct and immediate result of the absence

of venality in the Government; such zeal, loyalty and fidelity would be impossible iv the service did they not themselves know that as they do so are they done by; and that no considerations of party or opinion ever control either their appointment or their promotion. Drawn from all sorts and conditions of men, they have absolute confidence that the results given by the system tinder which they are selected will be rigorously carried out, without the least regard to any shades of political colour or complexion whatever.

Tlie contrast is hislruetiva between this .and the American service. The one " absolutely free from the taint of venality," the other a veritable hotbed of corruption. Those who have personal acquaintance with American politics will understand perfectly the reason of the contrast. The news recently furnished in our cable columns announcing that even in places so remote from Washington as the Australian capitals tV Consuls have been changed with a change of administration, are a significant commentary upon the debasement of the American service. Unhappily there are indications that we in this colouy are destined to follow the American nther than the English model. Yet here the importance of a stable and incorruptible Civil Service is at least as great as at Home. Our politics are even more liable to change ; transitions from party to party occur as a rule at much more frequent intervals. Aid if English statesmen need to be " stiffened and buttressed by the corroborative force" of a perfect Civil Service, how much more true is it of colonial Ministers ? Here, also, we "pitchfork" a Cabinet Minister into whatever hole may bo convenient: a carpenter, for example, who can't build a lavatory, and doesn't know the difference between one railway j.auge and another, into the Public Works office. But it is the Socialistic tendency of our legislation that makes an able and honest Civil Service most imperatively necessary. The functions of Government are multiplying. The State touches a thousand matters hitherto left to the citizen to settle for himself. How necessary, then, that the work should be done by men who are not corrupt and are faithful to certain high traditions. There was good ground for hope in the earlier years of the colony's history that the traditions of the English Civil Service would take root in our soil. But the outlook for the future is dark. The country has lost faith in the wish of the Government to administer the Civil Service in a rigorously honest spirit. A few years ago, we believe, Lord Dufferin's words could have been applied with as great truth to the New Zealand as to the Home or Indian Service, and we believe now they are true of a considerable portion of our hard-worked and under-paid public servants, but they must be taken with a significant qualification after the recent glaring disclosures as to the kind of men who are being foisted into positions of dignity and honour.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18970825.2.23

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 4

Word Count
1,253

The Press. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1897. THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE. Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 4

The Press. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1897. THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE. Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 4