“FOOLISH RESTRICTIONS”

Hawera Star, Volume L, 19 December 1930, Page 4

“FOOLISH RESTRICTIONS”

BUBEAUCBATIO CIVIL SERVICE. . LOSS OF ABLE STUDENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Dec. 18. “When are we going to ’recognise that the highest trained men should be able to study abroad and return to New Zealand to properly paid positions in the civil service?” asked Canon Archdcrle at the King’s College prize-giving. “The cream of the country is skimmed and lamentably few of our travelling and Rhodes scholars are able to return to their native land and help build up her life. A small country like this cannot afford such a loss of her best wards, and it is partly due to the foolish restrictions on entry into the civil service, which force a boy into it at an early age, with a system of seniority dear to the bureaucratic mind. A similar mistake is made by many banks, insurance and business offices, who say that they must have boys at 16 or 17, and so discourage hoys from staying at school long enough to be really educated. I do not wonder that our economic problems are too much for us when such a system prevails. It produces a mediocre level and is not likely to produce a leader.”