SOCIAL SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 160, 1 April 1939, Page 9

SOCIAL SERVICES

Minister Relinquishes Pensions Portfolio TRIBUTE TO OFFICERS With the coming into operation of the Social Security Act today the social services will be administered by the Social Security Department and Ministerial administration of the Pensions Department will pass from Mr. Parry to the Minister of Social Security,’ Mr. Nash. Air. Parry, who has been Minister of Pensions since the Labour Government came into office in 1935, said yesterday that ho had but one regret in the change that was taking place—the losing of the direct official contact he had enjoyed with a staff of State officers who had rendered him loyal and valuable assistance in the work done for the public of the Dominion. Mr. Parry said thg various amendments for which the Government, in its desire to improve the social advantages and benefits of the people, had obtained the sanction of Parliament to make in the pensions legislation, imposed on the officers a vast amount of additional work. That work had been performed by the men and women of the department with a remarkable celerity and accuracy which could be gauged only by those having an intimate connexion with the affairs of the department. J'The spirit of Parliament’s amending pensions legislation seemed to be inculcated in the officers,” Mr. Parry said, “and any amount of extra work thrust upon them did not in any way cause a slackening of heartening effort to meet it. The public rightly expects of State servants that they shall be attentive in the discharge of their duties. It has been my happy experience as a member of the Government

not to have encountered complaints of dereliction, or disregard of duty, ‘ against the staff of the Pensions Department, but I have had many letters from the public eulogizing the work and general helpfulness of officers. "These messages were very gratifying to me as the Ministerial head of the department for the last three years. I feel that, in the wider sphere of activity which the. Social Security Department offers, the public will find predominating among members of the staff the same excellent spirit which Characterized their work in the past.”