AGE AND SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 189, 8 May 1931, Page 8

AGE AND SERVICE

Some Outspoken Comment

LIMITS SUGGESTED Government officers with exceptionally long service who are not participating in the present retirements and retrenchments receive strong criticism in the latest issue of the “Public Service Journal." An editorial article in the journal states: —“There are a few officers with over 40 years’ service and over 60 years of age who. surely, at this stage, should have the grace to retire voluntarily. If they do not do so, then the Public Service Commissioner would be in a well-nigh indefensible position if he retains their services and at the same time dispenses with others before their time. “How desirable it is to have a set limit of service is borne out by the action of one public official who not even the Government has the power to displace. We refer somewhat reluctantly to the Controller and Audit-or-General, but his apparent clinging to office, despite the economic crisis, compels us to be frank. The gentleman occupying this high place is in the seventies, and is surely approaching a latter-day world’s record in his 57 years of public service. A sense of the fitness of things is a valuable asset—particularly in old age.”