THE ATTACK ON THE CIVIL SERVICES.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 143, 28 August 1895, Page 3

THE ATTACK ON THE CIVIL SERVICES.

The following additional particulars of the recent violent attack by members of the Government on the same branches of the Civil Service, are culled from the Dunedin Star. Speaking of the Minister of Lands it says:— He commoaced by saying that the Auditor-General was a determined partisan, to support which statement he said that the Auditor, without consulting him or the Minister responsible, had endorsed a return which was some days overdue. To show that the law had not been complied with, he went on to say that by' some means members of the Opposition were able to get information from department officers, and, working himself into white heat, he declared at the top of his voice that the Government were surrounded by men in that building whom they could not trust. This aspersion on the Civil Service was at once taken up, and furnished matter for a heated discussion. Sir R. Stout declared that it was not right that Civil servants should have serious charges hurled at them in that manner. The Minister should formulate his charges, and have an investigation held. The Hon. Mr M'Keuzie said he would not withdraw one word. The questions which members of the Opposition put on the Order Paper showed that they must have obtained information from the officers of departments. Asked to particularise what the questions the Minister did not deign to reply, but went to say that the Audit Department was chiefly to blame. The AuditorGeneral, he said, had a personal "down" on him, and because he had endeavored to show how he was not capable of performing the duties of his office, he had written a letter about him which no gentleman should write. He (the Hon. Mr M'Kenzie) had passed that letter by as a "drivelling of an old man."

The Chairman ruled that this expression must be withdrawn. The Minister, continuing, said that he could show things about that Audit ."Department that would astonish the House and James Edward Fitzgerald. He passionately declared in closing that the name of John M'Kenzie would go as far as that of James Edward Fitzgerald.

Mr Bell rose to defend the AuditorGeneral, stating no man in the colony held a higher political and social record than that gentleman, of whom the colony might well be proud. He pointed out the high responsibility of the Auditor-General's Office, and said he was the only safeguard given to the House and country in the control of the public expenditure. It was oclv just that the charges levelled against that department should be put to the proof. Sir R. Stout also bore testimony to the worth of the officer attacked, saying that when they were all forgotten the Auditor-General would be written of by the future historians as the groatest man who ever sat in the House of Representatives. Mr Fit z gerald was a man of the highest hono. in the public service. The Premier made an esplan tion that he had the greatest confidence in the Civil Service, but there were a few exceptions. As for Mr Fitzgerald, he was not that high and mighty or noble soul that he had been depicted to be.