PUBLIC SERVICE EFFICIENCY TESTS.

Evening Star, Issue 23340, 9 August 1939, Page 10

PUBLIC SERVICE EFFICIENCY TESTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Two weeks ago there appeared in your paper an account of the annual meeting of the Public Service Association of Otago, included in tho items of interest . was a reference to a strongly - worded motion of protest against the efficiency tests. That famous annual meeting was allegedly the largest meeting in the history of the Otago branch of the Public Service Association. So good! There were approximately 60 at the meeting, and the membership is in the vicinity of 1,000 — so much for a record meeting. What has happened at ordinary meetings, if ever held, must be blushingly hidden from view. There were four speakers, and apparently no one else had aught to say, bince that meeting two articles have appeared in the ‘ Star ’ enlightening a wondering world as to the meaning of the “ tests ” and including a few opinions gleaned from various sources. As a direct reflection on the general lack of interest the action taken by the Local Section Committee and tho Dominion Executive has been in exact proportion to the amount of enthusiasm shown by the local public servants. Where is the interest of younger members—those who will be affected most by the efficiency tests? Are they content t 6 let matters drift, as is the usual practice of the Public Service Association? I have waited patientlv for additional publicity and renewed signs of the intense hostility to the imposition of the tests. Your lucid explanation of the tests in Monday’s edition, to my mind, was a clear exposition of the position, and the publishing of the tests by the Public Service Commissioner was the necessary tonic required to rouse a complacent and self-satisfied association from its state of perpetual slumber.

The published remarks on Monday evening of the Chief Postmaster (Mr M'lsaac) show quite a lamentable lack of knowledge of the position. The Chief Postmaster failed to draw your reporter’s attention to the fact that his departmental tests finish in the vicinity of £335 a year, as against the limit of £515 in our tests, and that the Post and Telegraph tests were designed for a service that originally had as its entrance test the Sixth Standard proficiency examination, as against the Public Service entrance or matriculation in the Public Service.

In conclusion, I would tender to you the thanks of many public servants for the consideration extended to the service in the publishing of the efficiency tests, together with the various resolutions of protest, although apparently your assistance has had little appreciation from the majority of public servants.—l am, etc., Public Servant. August 9.