The Evening Star TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1887.

Evening Star, Issue 7363, 8 November 1887, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1887.

It will be remembered that Sir R. Stout in his Kuox Church spe e -ch made a great parade of the economy and saving which hsvd been effected by his Civil Service Act, lie said that one of the provisions of that Act was that no one was to come into the Service {with the exception of experts) unless he eame as a cadet. The cases which have been rampant in years past—of men being taken into the Public Service through patronage and otherwise—were to be got rid of. It was also provided that those who got into the Service were not to be noniina&ed by the Minister of the day, but they were to get in by competition. These were most <a#c:ellent provisions, and Sir R. Stout did weli te display the political morality of his Ministry fco the public gaze. But the cry is one thing and the practice another. It is true that the Civil Service A*t does make Bucn provisions as the late Attorney-General stated ; but unfortunately, it is equally true that bis Government brushed aside all thepe provisions when th"y interfered with their desire to serve a partisan. An excellent commentary on the good faith of ex-Minister? is afforded by some correspondence recently placed before Parliament. It commences with the following memorandum :—" The "Controller and Auditor-General has the "honor respectfully to lay before Parlia- " ment a copy of correspondence in reference " to the passing of certain vouchers for fchc " salaries of officers appointed, a* it seemed " to the Controller and Auditor-General, in "contravention of the provisions of the " Civil Service Reform Act." The salaries in question were passed in compliance with the opinion of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General; but as the Controller and Auditor-General's view did not coincide with that of the Law Officers, they were passed only on the condition that the correspondence should be placed before Parliament. This extremely weak and most unsatisfactory memorandum is dated October last, but the jorrenpondence commenced h* September, 18S6, and after the passing ,of the wonderful Civil Service Reform Act, ■which Sir Robert Stout averred would " destroy the evil tbat had been rampant In "the past of men being taken into the " Public Service through patronage." It now appears that in defiance of the provisions oi the Act Mr fiENBV J). O'Callaghan wasemployed under theautherity of Mr Ballance as an "extra clerk" in the Native Department. The gentleman thus favoi v ed is a relative of the member for Lincoln, a most faithful henchman of the Stout- Vogel Ministry. The correspondence is of a very lively .character, and to get aver the difficulty Mr O'Callaghan sent in a voucher for his pay ah <- "day laborer" at J,os per d\y, and varioiis members of the wrote memo, after memo, to \r. y contumacious ControllerGeneral urging payment of Mr O'Callag/i a ,\ \s wages. The argumentative powers of the Solicitor General were called juto play, and he blandly coincided with the Government, seeking to show that Mr O'Caf.l aghast wss only a " temporary" servant of the .Government, and "therefore not amenable "to t&e provisions of the Act." The Assistant-Costrolkr, however, was stubborn, and wrote briefly that "the Audit " Department cannot pass .claim jipr salary "to Mr O'CALLAtsrtAJT, unless f.t ,c*n i*e "shown that he has been appointed in "twins of the Civil Service Reform AGi." Now, it was to show anything of the kind. He did &oi enter the Service as a cadet after competitive CKa-inination; in fact, he entered it as the brother of f.Jie member for Lincoln. He was not an expert, i within the meaning of the Act; that is to say, he was not " a person skilled in. inedi"cine, law, navigation, science, technical " art, or the management of live stock, f'fir in naval or military matters," as speaified in clause 4, and he was ODly .classifed as a "laborer." Still the correspondence went on, and still the officers of the' Audit Department were obdurate. Mr FnWEBAjUD, .the phief Controller and Auditor-General, .de.oJa.red that he was unable to understood the SolioiforGeneral's opinion. "If,"hesaye, "Sections "4 and 9 have the meaning which the "Solicitor-General assigns to them the whole The obvious meaning of those sections is to limit the Civil Service to persons who haw given a certain security for their fitness for ihejr .duties. If it docs not mean that it means nothing. And again he declined to pass Mr voucher. " I am unable," he says, •" to tr.eat "the whole Act as mere verbiage, which " under the proposed reading it would bt>." But the Gevernment were resolved not to sacrifice the brother of their trusty follower to the law or the crotcheta of an AuditorGeneral ; so as a last resource they called in the aid of Sir R. Stout, who, as the auther of the Civil Service Reform Act, should be supposed to know exactly what its provisions meant. With that delightful casuistry for which learned gentleman is so distinguished, he evolves an argument that inasmuch as th 6 Act provides that all persons who are Civil servants shall be deemed to be threemohthly servants;, "that consequently " there fc no such thing as a ' permanent " Civil servant"; also that there is nothing In the Act preventing "the temporary olerka

"from being employed, nor anything which " states that a person engaged as a day " laborer, for example, may not be employed "for a week or a month temporarily and " for temporary purposes." he goes on to point out that there is no limitation imposed on the Government in the employment of temporary clerks ; and, in brief, that the provisions of the Act did not apply to Mr O'Callaohan's brother.

The winding up of this perfectly unique correspondence is of an amazing character, i The Auditor-General says that after con-1 sidering the Attorney-General's memo, he is not convinced that his own conclusions are wrong ; that the Civil Service Reform Act was intended to place the whole Civil Service on a different footing; but that, as interpreted by the Attorney-General (Sir R. Stout), it does not seem to do so. However, as tho Law Officers entertain opinions differing from his own, he will pass Mr O'Cailaghan's voucher on condition of the correspondence being placed before Parliament. So the matter ends. Mr O'Callaghan's relative gets his wages, and Pari liament gets the papers; and the Civil Service Reform Act is apiece of waste paper in the manipulation of unscrupulous MinisI ters, as we believe several similar cases will yet be heard of.