Private Secretaries.

Evening Star, Issue 7420, 16 January 1888, Page 4

Private Secretaries.

The ' Otago Daily Times' has, it appears, fallen foul of the Minister of Education and his private secretary. It has very strongly condemned the practice of Ministers each having a private secretory. The ' Times' is quite right in doing so, although somewhat late in the day. We have frequently objected to the employment of such officers, as an entirely unnecessary piece of extravagance. The private secretary is a comparatively recent innovation. In the old days Ministers never dreamt of having such attaches, except in tho case of the Premier, and they are utterly unnecessary now. The excuse put forward semiofficially in the case of Mr Fisher and his secretary is altogether too thin. Most, if not all, the private secretaries are departmental officers, who are taken away from their ordinary work, and given an extra LSO a year or so to dance attendance on the Minister, while somebody else is engaged and paid to do the ordinary work on which they should be employed, and for the supposed performance of which they are paid their ordinary salaries. As a rule, they soon grow to consider themselves several degrees above the mere departmental officers, and assume a number of airs and graces which are anything but an improvement on ordinary Civil Service manners. Very often the Private Secretary appears to imagine himself a considerable moro important personage than the Minister to whom he is attached. Of course no one would, as our correspondent says, grudge the Minister of Education, or any of his colleagues, a holiday, to recuperate after the fatigues of the session, even if the trip should be paid for by the Treasury; but if undertaken for holiday purposes and ta secure relaxation from official duties, it is difficult to see why it should be necessary to have the services of a private secretary. Mr Amelius Smith is, perhaps, one of the best of the class, and is no doubt a most agreeable travelling companion, but it is a little too much to expect the country to pay him not only salary but also travelling expenses in order that he may accompany the Minister of Education in inspecting cement works, and similar recreations. As to his alleged special duties in regard to local government, we have not the slightest doubt that they can be, and are, attended to quite as regularly and efficiently in Dunedin, on board a steamer or in a coach or railway carriage, as if he were in Wellington. Tho abolition of private secretaries, save for the Premier, is one of the very first retrenchments which should be effected. They are an unnecessary and very expensive luxury.—' Post.'