PRIVILEGES OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11589, 21 May 1903, Page 6

PRIVILEGES OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES.

STATEMENT BY SIR J. G. WARD. Mention of tEe railway strike in Victoria by several speakers at the social tendered to Mr Ell. M-H.R., last night, ic.l to some refeieuce being made to the case of the Wellington telegraphist who was dismissed from the Government service owing to his connection with the Farmers' Union. The subject was introduced by Mr Gohns, President of the. Trades and Labour Council, who .aid that the same differences regarding public servant- existed in New Zealand as in Victoria,, and he instanced the ca.se of the teleiraphist in Wellington. His remarks brought Sir Joseph Ward to his feet with an explanation- There wci«, he said, a very close analogy between the case of the. telegraphist and the strikers in Victoria, but with this material difference, that the Victorian railway strikers had been affiliated for fifteen years with _he Trades' Hall, and then they were called upon to sever that affiliation. It was that to which they took exception, and that which they ' fought for to maintain. The right thing to have done was to havo said fifteen years ago to the railway men that they wire not to affiliate with the Trades Hall. In New Zealand, ever since a Parliament had been constituted, the system had been that Government employees were not to take an active part in tha politics of the country. In the case of the. telegraphist referred to by Mr Gohns, if in that particular case authority had been given to enable him to have occupied the secretaryship of an organisation that admitted itself to be political, then it ought to be put forth that every officer employed in tho public departments of the colony should have an equal privilege. It was for the Parliament of tho country to say whether or not the. State employees in* New Zealand were to be given equal privileges with the p?ople outside tho State Departments, and if the Parliament affirmed this principle, then it would be done. (Hear, bear.) On the other hand, if Parliament, decided in the negative, then the. people must accept the decision. Personally his sympathies were with the telegraphist referred to, but th?. duty of tho Governmont was perfectly clear, and the Government carried out the duty they believed to bs the rignt one- xmder existing conditions, and until Parliament, altered thcsei conditions, the Government would be. bound to do likewise under similar conditions. (Applause.)