CIVIL SERVICE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17208, 27 July 1921, Page 6

CIVIL SERVICE.

CRITICISM BY PRESIDENT OF N.Z. FARMERS* UNION, (SPECIAL TO "THE PRESS.") WELMSGTON, July 28. Mr G W. Leadley, president of tho New Zealand Farmers' Union, in his address to delates to-day, re erred to the cost of the civil service. It is doubtful," he said, "whether wo arc -receiving value for this expenditure. To begin at the top, wo have too much legislation, and too many legislators for such a comparatively -small population It seems ridiculous that we should have 123 gentlemen sitting m Wellington for several months each vear l-mding out Acts of Parliament m£y of which are hardly ever heard q afterwords. If we could grow wheat on the -same scale as we grow Acts of Parliament, we. should have a large surplus of a very valuable rommodrtj. The pitv of it is tliat our Acts of Paiiiament cannot be exported for foreign US "So far as our civil, service is concerned, the plain English of the position is that we are gradually building im a solid and permanent structure, "Ce weight and whose influence thWh tEemselves and their depenSnthnd connexions, will be .30 powerful as to bo.able to successfully resist nil attempts at reduction or reform in number or status or cost.. .Let any ambitious or reckless . politician . even now lead a tfrusade against the existing order of things in so tar as the great multiplication of State employees is concerned, and the increase in .State expenditure in this regard, and what would be his fate.P Annihilationswift and utter political annihilation. If there is to be any reform it must come from without, and I am glad to see that there is a very strong body of publio opinion forming on this question To exnect that reform—trenchant reform, a'dequate reform—w 11 c-me 'from any other source than by public opinion—l mean taxpayers' oprn-on—is to expect too much. The late Admiral Lord Fisher that Mr Gladstone once told him that he (Mr Gladstone) was helpless against all the publio departments. There must come from the {treat body of the taxpaymg public a strong a.n'd an insistent demand for State officers, and a sternlv reduced expenditure, and this. I believe, can be without materially affecting the efficiency of the service."