THE CIVIL SERVICE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 April 1934, Page 11

THE CIVIL SERVICE

NEW SOCIETY FORMED STUDY OF ADMINISTRATIVE WORK (By Telegraph—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, 17th April. To give members of the Civil Sergive an insight into the work of public administration, a new society, the Public Service Administration Society, has been formed in Christchurch. The society, working in collaboration with the authorities of Canterbury College, has organised a series of lectures lor the winter term in which all phases of the organisation of the modern State will be dealt with.

The.society has been formed chiefly for the benefit of the younger controlling officers of the service, the object being to give them an insight into the wide ramifications of the administration of a State organised on modern lines.

Mr C. G. S. Ellis, president of the new society, remarked to-day that it had been felt for some time that training beyond that given by an ordinary university degree course was necessary for those members of the service who would ultimately hold a controlling position in it. At present officers of tlie Public Service were trained accountants, trained bookkeepers, trained surveyors, or trained lawyers, but they were not trained as administrators, and only gained their administrative knowledge by experience in their own particular spheres. Public administration of the modern State, however, was so complex that it was felt that some special training on a more general basis was desirable, and the society had been formed with this object in view. It was really a study group formed to study the broad subject of public administration and its application to various State Departments.

The Christchurch society is the first of its kind in New Zealand, but it is anticipated that it will be rapidly extended to other centres. It has the support of the Public Service Commissioner, and it is hoped that eventually it will receive the official support of the University of New Zealand, and that a diploma in public administration will be instituted.

Since the work which the society is setting out- to do is aimed chiefly at improving the capabilities of the section of tlie service likely to become controlling officers, membership of fthe society is being restricted more or less closely to tin: professional and clerical divisions. At present the membership is between 40 and 50, but it is probable that this will increase once the society's activities begin. A course of ten lectures has been arranged by the Canterbury College authorities for the coming term.