State Services rule on prestige awards

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32620, 31 May 1971, Page 14

State Services rule on prestige awards

The State Services Regulations contained nothing to say that an award of prestige had to relate directly to the work the recipient of the award was doing in his department, said Mr A. Orme, a Maori lawyer employed in the Christchurch Public Trust Office, yesterday.

Mr Orthe, who has been granted a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study race relations overseas, but who has been told that he will not receive leave ’with pay, was making a further reply to the secretary of *the State Services Commission (Mr D. N. Ryan).

Regulation K9O in the State Services Regulations, manual was one of several provisions encouraging employees to apply for awards of prestige, said Mr Orine. It said that if the project was for the good of both the Crown and the employee, the decision for payment of sal-

ary rested with the commission.

Mr Ryan’s suggestion that the commission would not override the Public Trustee’s decision was designed to mislead—and it had misfed the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Maclntyre), Mr Orme said. Mr Orme said that in trying to lay the responsibility at the door of the Public Trustee, the commission was being grossly unfair, because it had the final decision, not any departmental head. The source of his salary was immaterial, because ultimately he was paid by the Government

The commission had dozens of precedents, including All Blacks and bandsmen. It could not say it was implementing Government policy, when Government policy clearly recognised the importance of racial relations. His project was aimed solely to help New Zealand in the field of racial relations.

Mr Orme said that he did not intend to continue the debate in public. The matter was now in the hands of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk).

KAIAPOI LADlES— Bisque bogey—Section 1: Mrs J. Monk, 2 up; Mrs B. Stewart, 1 up; Mrs T. Bate, I up; Mrs B. Pearce, 1 up. Section 2: Mrs F. Mappy. 3 up; Mrs E. Bonner 2 up; Mrs E. Rldout, 2 up: Mrs S. Cairney, 2 up; Mrs B. Woods, 2 up. Section 3: Mrs M. Cleland. 6 up, on count-back from Mrs H. Wilson, 6 up.