The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, November 8, 1887. THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 64, 8 November 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, November 8, 1887. THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The members of the Civil Service are still in 4 state of suspense as to what will be the outcome of the retrenchment proposals, and they are certainly entitled to sympathy. Very soon many must submit to the changed state of things—where reduction is possible it must be made, though much can be made without placing hardship on those who have already hard times of it,

If the assurances of the Government can be relied on, there is nothing to fear in this respect—retrenchment will be carried out with special regard to those who are to be “retrenched.”—but we must confess to a certain scepticism on this point. It would be only as it should be, but past experience has taught us many lessons—the same old story has been told by nearly every successive Government, and if promises had been given effect to there would be no need for the extreme reforms that are now forced upon us, Still we must hope that however weak the Government may prove in some points, they will be compelled by pressure of circumstances to get as near the good result promised as it is possible to do. Retrenchment we must have—it is better that individuals should have to bear straitened incomes for a time than that the threatening ruin should overwhelm the country. But it must be very different to what has for some time been called by that name. The Atkinson Government has now an opportunity—not an enviable one perhaps—to show what a wise administration can do to replace the State affairs on a sound and healthy basis, and one of the first steps in this direction will be a close adherence to principle in making the necessary departmental reductions. One feature in connection with the Financial Statement, which leads us to attach less to the genuineness of the desires of the Government than we otherwise would, is that while they are professing the most strenuous retrenchment they do not consider it out of the way to allow themselves /’zoo a year for house rent in addition to /"800 salary and thirty shillings a day for travelling expenses. There are many Civil servants who hold responsible positions who do not get so much as Ministers allow themselves for rent. We expect something more practical than this, although the Ministerial allowance may be a great saving on that of their predecessors in office. But the Government have a difficult task, and it would neither be fair nor to the general interest to hamper them in their work. They have made a good point in comparison with the Vogel team, and if they satisfactorily cope

with the work in hand they will earn for themselves much of that support which is now hanging in the balance. What we wish to see is fair promises carried into practical effect, and the measures carried with that consideration which the Government have pledged themselves to extend—discard all political favoritism, topple a good round sum off the salaries of those who can well afford it, and be easy on the hard worked rank and file. If political considerations are eschewed, and an equitable spirit maintained, the impending pruning will not be felt with anything like the severity that some fear, The efficiency of the Civil Service may be improved and its expense lessened without a grea f deal of hardship, by the weeding out of many who are not retained in it because of any particular faculty and ability,

The appointment of a Civil Service Board has long been agitated, and the prospect of its being an accomplishment of the near future will be hailed with satisfaction by those who wish to see the Civil Service placed on a footing at any rate equal to that of a large merchant’s establishment, where promotion is gained by merit and not through the efforts of any political clique. Even with the Board it may not be possible to preclude political 1 influence being exercised, but it will at least be a step in advance of the present system, through which not only is the efficiency of the Service weakened, but each successive Ministry corrupted by the pressure that is always exerted on behalf of favorites. It may be said that a Board would be liable to just the same pressure, yet it must be borne in mind that the Board would be judged by its actions, while there is more inducement for a Government of whose tenure of office there is no certainty, to give way to the influence of political friends. The Service never can attain that efficiency which should be the standard unless there is some chance of permanency when once it is entered.

In conclusion we may re-echo the remarks made by a Wellington contemporary —Let the Government make the suspense as short as possible, and in terminating it let them decide that those shall be cast on the world to shift for themselves who are best able to do so, or who have the least claim to be retained, and in the reduction of salaries those shall be required to forego the largest proportion who will, nevertheless, have the largest margin left after provide g for their reasonable wants,