UNPRACTICAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 29, 3 August 1939, Page 10

UNPRACTICAL

FUTILITY OF TESTS

The statement by the Public Service Commissioner. Mr. T. .Mark, Avith reference to efficiency tests in the Public Service, published in yesterday's "Post," Avas commented upo.i today by a gentleman well qualified to speak on matters connected Avith the service, and v/ho also referred to the subject in yesterday's issue. Declaring that he stood all-fours for non-political control of the Civil Service, that he had the highest regard for the Commissioner personally, and felt sure he was only actuated by the highest of motives in the proposal to institute the efficiency tests, "The Post's" informant emphasised that the Commissioner's views showed that he .Avas totally unaware not only of the illegality but of the futility of the pro-j posed tests. Referring to the scope of the tests for officers of the professional and clerical divisions, he stated it would be impossible not only for the Commissioner himself, but also for such high officials as the Solicitor-Gen-eral or the Law Draftsmen to pass a test on the provisions of tlie Public Service Act, 1912. "He must have overlooked the criticisms thereon Avhich have been made by the Solicitors-Gen-eral and his Majesty's Judges on the impossibility of interpreting the provisions of the.Statute itself, and also the fact that many of the regulations purported to have been made in accordance with the provisions of the Statute are ultra vires," the gentleman added. The Statute Avas of the variety knoAvn as "scissors and paste"—it was a mere conglomeration of sections taken from Public Service Acts in the Commonwealth and States of Australia and throAvn together, without a proper appreciation of their legality or consistency. They were the work of a lay and not of a legal mind—the IaAV draftsman, he felt sure, Avas not responsible for the drafting. | The gentleman added that it might be possible to set a paper on the "spirit or intention" of the Act, but difficulty would be immediately encountered as even the several Commissioners themselves had entirely different views thereon. The Amendment Act of 1927 was in a different category. It was the work of the Law Draftsman after conference witb the then Commissioner, and after the Public Service Association had expressed its views in regard to the Act in Bill form. He Avas emphatic that the proposed tests were unpractical. The time had arrived for a review not only of the examination tests but of the whole system of control, which, in the interests of all, must be non-political. A stocktaking should be made of all the Departments, not only those under Commissioner control. They were, on the Avhole, efficiently managed by a staff of competent officers, of Avhich the people of the Dominion might well feel proud.