A DISRATED CIVIL SERVANT SPEAKS HIS MIND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 27 May 1891, Page 4

A DISRATED CIVIL SERVANT SPEAKS HIS MIND.

11 1 1 —0" TV*'. Last Thfcrsdajr about *w citizens met in' the Crescent Hotel, Inveroargill, to bid: good bye tdMfiJo^Sftffifie. for- 14 years Chief Surveyor, afidfoF^gnt y&rs Chicf 1 Commissioner of Orown Lands, who left the oolony last Saturday, with ; the. intention of settling' in Squfh, Africa. In replying to $hb* 'address presented to him, Mr Spenoe said :~When a meeting of thiß kind wbb firßt ; Mentioned to me I said X .wonld be glad to have- the opportunity of expressing my mind oii the reoent ohanges in the Lands department and on the system of administration keaerally. lam naturally a man of peaoe, but not a man of paece at any prioe, and it seemed to me that it was a dnty I owed to tine otvil service and the colony to speak out | plainly in rogard to the existing system of Ibingft ' Usually and naturally on occasions Of this kind there is no jarring sound, the key-note being a blend of oompliments, (latitude, and harmony. The prteent circumstances, however, are exceptional, and demand, on my, part, a dietinot departure j from the usual rule. I told my friends, the originators of this meeting, that I was | a poor hand at Baying soft nothings, and that I valued more the genuine friendship ! and approbation of even half a dozen people, , than tno formal and 1 half 'hear ted oompliments of a orowd. In other words 1 .would j prefer to express my mind plainly and openly .to. a few sympathisers than to be honoured by the presence of a raul" titude who, owing to defeotive sympathy, would expeot me to avoid all referenoe to reoent events, and to give utteranoe only to - A 'few Vapid inanities. lam persuaded that the friendß, one aud all, who have' gathered rppnd me to-day are genuine in • their friendship and sympathy, and that th-ay will gladly allow me the opportunity , of speaking my mind freely. My remarks ;Wilf,not be political in any way. Ihave learned to value the oharaoter and friendship of men having all shades of politioal opinion, ' and my remarks will have little or no reference to the Government ns a whole, but simply to the Minister of Lands, who, I have' good reason to believe, is doing things whioh the 'rest of the Cabinet do not approve of .; The civil Bervioe of the oolony is now under a reign of terror. Offioers are discharged' and 'kicked about from pillar to poat, aa if K vernment were simply a big game of foot I IL • The objeot to be gained js only known' ■ jto, the man or men now holding the reins of , power. The whole process is so idiotio that 'one begins to wonder whether I 'onr rulers have reoently made their escape from a f" lunatio asylum. Were a private person to* aot on the sanie principles, he would .soon be in the bankruptcy oourt. The Government's chief adviser at present is tittle-tattle, and "at her advioe the lives of civil servants ate made miserable; and their homes spoiled and rendered desolate, The blind goddess of ■.Justice, with her spales 1° hand, seems to haire left the oolony, neyer to return 5 'and olannishness, ignorance, despotißtii have set ep their triple throne in her Btead. Oan 4 oonntry nourish nnder Buoh oiroumstanoes I •Those who think' bo must expeot grapei " from thorns and figs from thistles. I will »»w, howevet.'deal with the reoent depart* mental ohanges. llaving been in the Gov* ernmant servioe for the last 25 years, and ftovingheid the position of chief Bhrveyor of Southland for the last 14 years, andof Commissioner. . of Orown Landß for ' th? laat eight years, T trust that, without egotism, I may- 0-ai-tt that my remarks on the state of the Civil Servioe and on the recent departmental ohanges axe entitled to . a little weight. I will first deal With' the ieoenti local" changes in the Lauds department, and thereafter, with the system of administration as a whole. For some years ,baok the present Minister of Lauds (M* 1 ' M'Kensie), in his oapaoityaß an Otfpositiod member, has been firing away at the Qovernment of the time in referenoe to thi "maladministration of the forest* id Southland. As Mr M'Kenzie did not rep f resent a Southland constituency, and seldom honoured the -south with his presence, his Itnowledgeof the Southland forests must - either have been got by intuition, or a dear friend of his living in the south must often reminded him that so long as he, thd said dear friend, waß outside the pale of the Government servioe, so long and no longer ' would > " mal-admiuistration" oontinue. .It was. therefore to.be expected, on Mi; , M'Kqnme's advent to power, his dear friend being still ont in the ooid, that the '■ mal- : ..adndnktration", would suddenly riße to a, olimax, and necessitate Mr M'Kenzie's immediate presenoe in Southland. He accordingly oame down with the publioly ; expressed objeot of "sifting the matter 'to the bottom." As a Government offioial I treated the politioal hsad of my department .with every courtesy and honour.* Though I .noticed with regret that hiß friend was •always with him, and that his friend's, infiaenoe over him was evidently supremo, , I was impressed with Mr M Kenzie'a honesty j and straightforwardness, and congratulated myself on the faot that my offioial head, though somewhat Buspioiouß and severe, was yet a man ot etriot justice and integrity. We discussed seVerai matters that had been the subject of oomplaint, and I was able to show him that in regard to the matters referred to I could not have aoted otherwise than I did without either violating the law or doing a gross injustice to some one, Mr' M'Kenzie seemed well satisfied with my explanations, and expressed himself as glad to have met me. Throughout the conversation however, Mi* M'Kenzie was alwayß bringing in the olaims of his friend, He was evi> dently desirous of having him appointed , here and of sending the present offioer *_ further north, his exouse bsing that the 'present officer had no family. As the 'pressnt officer has a family of at least five, it looks as if hiß friend had unwittingly misinformed him; I thought it my duty to tell him' that though his friend was courteous and obliging, it was undesirable in tbe interests of che service that he should be appointed, and. in the Minister's own interest I reoommended that he should not bo appointed here, but elsewhere. I Baid thati. whonld be glad, to see, him appointed somewhere else, -but. his * appointment here would create remark. Mr M'Kenzie took my sugg^etion apparently in good part, and we parted on exoellent terms *, a very favourable imprewiori having been left on my mind ia regard io the new Minister. Judge of my surprise when, after hia return to Wellington, down oame a mandate that I mast remove to Westiand, thafc the preatfnt ranger must remove to Oanterbury, that Mr Royds and Mr Townshend mußt be discharged, and that Mr Nelson must prepare to move, This is the bone, but behold the • • alUpowerful antidote : His friend must bej -'-appointed ranger at a high salary as the only meanß of saving the forests and averting the destruction of the oountry, As I challenge investigation in regard to any and all of my publio aots, and as the Minister himself oould not find a single fault with what 1 had done, my solemn oonviotion Is that both ( ;. oommiasionpr and ranger were to be removed to uaakeway for, one whom Mr M'Kenzie evidently regards as the one only man who . .is fit for a plaoe in the civil servioe. I oannot make out why he did not appoint him as commissioner, but probably he holds tbis honour for nim in reserve, In regard to the dismissal of Mr Royds, I think it my duty to speak with no uncertain Bound. For „ many years I have': regarded Mr Royds as, 7 withont exception, One of the most effloient, most hardworking, most able, aoourate, and experienoed offioer I have ever met with in the servioe. He combines aooutaoy and „ quickness— a rare combination, For yeare ' baok fee has done splendid work for the Government afc a very low salary, frequent* ly taking Qovernment work home at night with the view of preventing it getting into arrears. The office requires tho services of two good men, and even then the work „ - oannot bis completely overtaken. Mr M'Kenzie waß never in the Land Offioe in : his life. Admittedly he knowa nothing of offioe work, and certainly nothing of „, the work . done in the Inveroargill Lands Office; yet claiming the privileges of , a . heaven horn administrator he issues the mandate thatf, Mr Royds muet go, and tbat one offioer to ust do tbo work, Surely if ; bhe person in the world knCws the work of the^ Invereargill Land Offioe, I must do so; and I say witbout tear of contradiction tbat .an offioer would require to be superhuman to - do the work singly, I never bet, but if I did I would be willing to take a wager that it would Jake ?0 John Mo^enzies to do the work that Mr Boyds does singly. How, then, does it oome that this man, who should be driving >his sheep on the hills, has been * ' ntls*sd to lhe position of dictator of the colony ■-'and has'the /ate of men infinitely superior to 'himself in his hands? Let there be an -; examination in any department of study you like— in literature, history, Soienoe, or even in politioal eoonomy and 'praotioal administralitin, and I bave little fear in asserting thftt ' Ihis modern Oinoinnatus would make bnt- a " ; 'p66r ihow iv oocoparison with the men whom he is exeroising hiß brief but despotio authority by displacing. I regard the discharge of Mr Royds as an aot ot pure un y. /tdulterated madneßß and brutality. Mr ..^K^nzie'a sheer ignorance of what he is .V doing lidfl at the bottom, of the whole busi* "'l heM, „_ His telegram in referenoe to the aup- ' jfofKd petition get up ib favour of Mr Mubssu '; ■ (the Mtfger who Jb being removed from Southf; "'JahaijitoyaaUthe oraei tyranny of theEaetern . depoti and some of bia recent memorandums to tne land bffiwj'asking the offioers to make a ilVde^Mion that they have not perpetrated a •- dwindle art an insult to the moral charaoter of Tsh* *ervita. J 'He might as well Bsk tbe offioeiß to declare that they have .not been : guilty, ot theft, .wpwjjuy, OfiWWk. 1^ oivjlservTi2r^:p^Wf y thioo*h a

reign 0! terror. loan hardly think that the people 0! New Zsaland will stand tbis sort oi U)roft,< ton who have been years in the semes have been hounded ont of it, Their experieuoe, their oharaoter, their servioes go for nothing. There is no inquiry, no justice. A olanniih feeling that covers all moral defects seems to trample all notions of equity or justioe beneath its feet. My belief is that the wisest head should role. ■ Boas our Byßtem of party government bring the wisest heads to the top T For successful praotioal administration, oharaoter, intellect, and experience are required. These are not picked up at random. Tou do not piok up a man in tbe street, and without training; without examination, without a gnaranteo of fitness elevate him at onoe to the Ohief Justice of the oolony. Then why, seeing that the funotiona of an administration are quite as delioate and important as those of a judge, do you piok up a man from the hillside or from the badly managed farm, and withont a single test as to oharaoter, training or fitness, plaoe the destinies of the oonntry lc his hands ? Ia administration one likes to -see vigour when it is robed in justioe and based on knowledge, but* the reoent exhibition of vigour in the Lands Department is the vigour of a bull in a Ohina shop. There muat be something radically wrong in a system of government when there is tuoh a violation of tbe fitness of things, and the sooner the oountry reoogniseß the intongrnity and goes in for a more sane and rational method of administration tbe sooner' will it emerge from itß difficulties aad realise its true destiny. I may cay that I have no spite sgainst the present Minister of Lands, and 1 forgive him from the bottom of. my heart. I desire, however, to oall a spade a spade, and to tell him in plain and direot language the impression whioh Mr M'Kenzie's aotion has left on my mind, His reoent aotion in seeking to injure and remove j me, without oause except thai the standing in the way of his immaculate friend, will, however, ohange the whole ourrent of my life. It is the olimax and oopeßtone of a persistent \ series of reduotions, and has filled me with a ' feeling of profound distrust and of intense' disgust. I like ihe work in whioh I have been engaged bb oommissioner of lands. The duties,! however, are heavy, delioate, and responsible, and unless a oommissioner in doing his duty, be baoked op by a jußt Government the' position becomes untenable. Iti* nbsolu'r'y impossible to pleats everyone, but 1 tmuk tbe; genoral verdiot ot the. Southland people will be that I have tried to db hly duty. There is not) a partioleof red tapeism in my composition,! and if I' flould benefit or oblige any member, of the community it was a positive pleasure^ for me to do so. There are, ot oourse, one or tyyo moral spiders in every community—,' thank God they are not uttiheitopi— who are, averse to working tor their living l , arid* ■Whoj I are ever on the outldok for some unfortunate] fly. My sympathies and tbe sympathies o*tj the Waste L&nd Board have always gone out ' towards the fly, and when tbe law permittesj discretion intended victims have been once, or twioe saved, It is my nature tq | do so, and I would, even save the spider I himself weft Ue' oa'ftght in the- meshes oi a similar web. Aiter 26 years' faithful i servioe, il is somewhat hard that ths Minister's aotion shonld compel me, at an advanced period of life, to leave a large family and seek my living in the wilds of a, new Bnd far distant oountry. I reoogniae the faot, however, that Mr M'Kenzie, in spite of j all his questionable motives and conduot, is but an instrument in the hands ot One who has bis own great purposes to aooomplisbj I I oould hardly believe in a Divine Providence without believing that a Nemeßis will soone-f j or later oveitake the men who have shown I suoh a wanton disregard of the principles ox justioe and ot the ordinary deoenoiea of politioal life. To those who ara acquainted with ail the sinister and repulsive.oircumstsnees of Ithe 1 easel 1 , the recent departmental ohanges in Southland exhibit a character .whiob is piobably Withoat a parallel in the Official hiitorv of the Colony. I oannot think that the people ot New Zealand are 10 steeped 1 in moral turpitude as to stand by and look oalmly on whUe the oivll service is, beinrf rapidly corrupted and demoralised. The oiroumßtanceß of the case, as known to me and others, demand a.eearohing parliamentary ' inquiry, and I think I may say that the result of suoh inquiry will be to hurl from {tower a man whom nature evidently designed or far other things than to be a Minister of the Orown. When the portfolio of Lands is in wiser and safer bands, I trust that the offioers will be reinstated wbo have been bo wantonly and cruelly displaced and iDJuied, , j