HIGH OFFICES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 52, 30 August 1945, Page 6

HIGH OFFICES

PUBLIC SERVICE

COMMISSIONER CONTROL

If the presidents of the Public Service Association, the P. and T. Association, or.the A.S.R.S. and other railway organisations could have been present they would have denounced the member for Pahiatua for giving false information to the House, said Mr. H. E. Combs (Government, Wellington Suburbs) in the House of Representatives last night when replying to allegations of political appointments to the Public Service made by Mr. K. J. Holyoake. . Mr. Combs quoted the names of high officials in the Public Service who had risen through the service to their present positions, including the Minister to Washington (Mr. C. A. Berendsen), the Administrator of Samoa (Mr. A. C. Turnbull), the General Manager of Railways (Mr. J. Sawers), the DirectorGeneral of the Post and Telegraph Department (Mr. H. M. Patrick), the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. B. C. Ashwin), the Controller of Customs (Mr E. D. Good), and the Commissioner of Taxes (Mr. F. W. Oborn). Outsiders had not been brought in to take charge of Departments that were no new. But occasionally a Department was opened which was extraordinary to the Public Service and that required extraordinary treatment as far as personnel were concerned. That happened with the Transport Department, which developed rapidly, and also when the Government decided to bring the waterfront under the Waterfront Control Commission. Public servants who had worked their way up in other Departments could not be expected to go down to the wharves and know all about waterfront business. Men with ability to direct waterfront operations had to be secured. The commission had done wonderfully good work. Those jobs were exceptional to the ordinary run of Public Service life.

STRETCHING THINGS TOO FAR

Fo.' Mr. Holyoake to suggest that wartime jobs were filled by men outside the Public Service because of Tammany Hall was stretching things far too much. He had also suggested that the Public Service be brought back under Public Service Commissioner cortrol. It had never been taken away from commissioner control, and he had been given two assistants, so that he could give more time to the job. . . , The Public Service Commissioners control was stronger now than before, added Mr. Combs. Under the Labour Government the Public Service had received very substantial increases in pay, and so far as the cost of living was concerned the Public Service had benefited by the stabilisation of the cost of living in all the main items except clothing. But the extra pay more than compensated for the additional amount that had to be spent on clothes.

Mr. Combs denied unrest among public servants. As far as superannuation was concerned, the higher-paid public servants did not pay their superannuation, but paid towards it. The taxpayers made good the difference. The lower-paid public servants did pay pretty well 20s in the £ of their superannuation, but they rejoiced in the social security benefits.