Evening Post. SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1909.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 133, 12 June 1909, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1909.

POLITICAL CONTROL. . I—* A brief but not inglorious life has again been the portion of Mr. Herdman's Public Service Bill. On a previous ocI casion it was snnffed out by the Speaker at the instance of the late Premier, on the ground that it violated the rule which forbids the introduction by a , private member of a Bill involving an increased appropriation. Yesterday this objection was not available, since the debate took place on the first reading, which does not involve the production of the Bill. The sa,ine objection must necesI sarily prove fatal to this measure as to its predecessor as soon as the text is before the House, but as the second reading has been set down for yesterday i fortnight — which in this case is equivalent in its practical effect to the usual six months — Mr. Herdman's equanimity will be spared a repetition of the previous shock. By the unusual procedure of raising a debate on the first reading of his own measure, he secured a discussion of the principle of non-political control of the Public Service, which is all that he desired. We are bound to say that the courageous attempt of the Government to purge the service of some of the worst effects of political control has by no means put Mr. Herdman's proposed reform out of date. On the contrary, the retrenchment now in progress greatly strengthens the case for the measure. Political management has swollen the dimensions of the Public Service in a wasteful and unhealthy way, and all the Premier's ingenuity is unequal to the task of explaining the laudable decision at which his Government lias arrived as anything less than a verdict of " guilty " against the politicians who have made so diastic a process of pruning necessary. "Public expenditure," said the Premier yesterday, "in many directions would not require to be continued on the scale at which it had hitherto been going on, and it followed that the cost of administration by the Public Service could bo correspondingly reduced." , This argument is almost entirely fal- \ lacious. The position is not that with the special need for a large public expenditure tho cost of administration can | be reduced, but that the large public expenditure entailed by extravagant administration can be reduced without loss of efficiency. Our only fear is that the results may not correspond with the good intentions of tho Government, and in the absence of authoritative expert guidance, piecemeal retrenchment, under the personal direction of Ministers, who certainly have not the time, and in some cases have not the ability, to do the woik properly, may reduce expenditure without safeguarding efficiency. Another difficulty of the methods which are now being applied is the temptation to political opponents to make capital ! out of the process. There is truth in the Premier's contention that "those who had formerly urged the necessity of retrenchment were now .using that re- | trenchment for political purposes." As long as the Public Service remains under politicaJ control, this result is inevitable. If the paity in power is forced to form it for political purposes, the party in opposition is driven by a similar human weakness to make political capital out of its administration without a due regard for justice and the' public needs. A still stranger admission of human weakness was made by Mr. Massey yesterday. To the Premier's charge that since the Government had announced its determination to retrench, it "had received applications j from members of the Opposition, including the Leader, for billets," Mr. Massey frankly pleaded guilty. "J represent 12,000 people in this country," said the Leader of the _ Opposition, "and I am going to do my duty to them. As long as the present system obtains, I am going to take advantage of it; but I say it is a bad system. I don't believe in it a bit." It must be admitted that it is a somewhat Machiavellian position that Mr. Massey adopts. I detest the whole business of billet-mongering, he says, in effect, and would be thankful to see it abolished ; but while it lasts, I am going to get what political profit from it I can, just like anybody else. The force of Mr. Massey' s arguments against the spoils system is heavily discounted by this admission, but his equivocal attitude undoubtedly constitutes a more telling argument against the system than any frontal attack that he could deliver. Neither Government nor Opposition is politically free, as long as the Public Service remains under political control.