POLITICAL NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7091, 27 August 1901, Page 3

POLITICAL NOTES.

(Post.)

PEIYATE SECRETARIES.

A good doal of discussion ■will probably take place on the Estimates. with regard to the position in the Civil Service occupied by Ministers'. Private .Secretaries. All Private Secretaries, it;may be mentioned, are attached1 ts some Department, and receive a bonus of £25 a year in consideration of the- extra work entailed by attendance on Ministers. The anomaly of their position, however, lies in the fact that although nominally many cases working fo/a Minister who is in no way connected with that 'Department, which receives no benefit from their services, and exercises no control over them; while on the.other, hand, they receive from that Department periodical increases in salary and thus gradually, "attain a seniority in a Department with whose business they are entirely unacquainted, and frequently prevent; men in the same Department from rising to, a position in the Department, to which their knowledge of vits affairs should entitle them. "Those who ar.e complaining of this state of things have no desire'to do an-in-jury whatever to the Private Secretaries, whose lot, like that of the policeman, is frequently "not a happy one ■" but they object to the system which permits the existence of such an anomalous state of things as above described.' "■" '•--.

BBEACH QP PRIVILEGE. ' A. question of privilege will be raised >n tlie House to-niqnw, the Goldfields and Mines Committee having directed its Chairman to report that the Dunedin - .Star has been guilty of publishing evi-. dence given" before it, reearding the took and Gray group of dredging com-' ->'- papies, before the committee had preseiited its report. The attention of the -committee was, it is stated, directed to : the .matter by Mr W. B, Cook, who raised the question whether the publication did not constitute a breach of privi- ' :Jege. ' : ..- .... ■'•■':. POSE.ES FOE THE PEEMEEB, [ IVIr Seddori is an ingenions politician (says tlie North: Otago Times), and we cannot understand;his clinging, to his opinion that^fanners are not affected by Workers Compensation for Occidents Act. He sayß the insurance agent!are siuipl-y working up a scare to create business for themselves. Would any member of thtf House ask Mr Sedclon the following questions :—First, Low itßappens that the Government Accident InsuranceDepartment has included farmers in list of those who come within the ; provisions of the Act? and, second, why," if farmers are exempt,' the Advances,to 'Settlers' ■pepartment, over which the,: Government has direct' control; insists that borrowing settlers shall'insure;-tneii: meil ?If it not a"fief that tlie\Crowii: Mw Ofhcera have given an opiniorv tliat JTTI r°™ c within the provisidris; of the Act / Yfcy then, does ,the Premier not amend the Act at once instead of talking nonsense. No one wants hl 8 : t opinion; they can purchase- "better ■ opinions at a fee'of 10s-:6d. What" farmers desire is some certainty as 46 - fheirppsitiopinthematter. MrSedaon, if he s.o desired, could giye them^thS m of a few lines, that need not"