GENERAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTAL RESOLUTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1315, 3 February 1868, Page 3

GENERAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTAL RESOLUTIONS.

To the Editor of the Hhbaio. Sib,—ln the New Zealand Gazette, No. 70, certain regulations for the guidance of the employees of tieGeneral Government are publishad, which oome into operation this day, February Ist, and in that code will be found the following clauses, which will probably affeot some of those officials in this Province :— «' Officers not to eagsge in Private Business.—Noofficer shall accept, or shall continue to: hold or die* charge, any paid office in connection with any basking, insurance, or mining company, or any building: society, or any similar body whatsoever, without thaexprese permiasioQ in writing of the. ResponsibleMinister. .. •. • :

" Professional Officers not to engage in Private Practice.—No professional: officer, to whom "The Civil Servioe Act, 1866," applies, shall engage or continue in the private practice of hie profession, without the authority of law, or the or; res* permission in writing of the Responsible Minister. . ' " Officers not to be Members of Local Bodiee.—Noofficer shall accept or continue to hold the office of mayor, president, chairman, or member of the coun» oil or boar<l ol any city, town, borough, shire, or ro»d district." At the present time, when the mind of the publicof Auckland is being directed to the expediency of handing , our local institutions over to the General Government, it were well that these regulation* ■hould be generally understood, in order that they may be duty appreciated by u«. It will be seen that; in the two first two clauses herewith quoted that arelaiation from their extreme stringency may be >*• cured by obtaining " the express permission in writing of the JJesponeiblo Minister." This proviso ify-ni' my opinion, open to serious objection, on the ground that it might be made the medium of offioial favour* itism, and also for political servitude, notwithstanding that another olause strictly prohibit* " officer* in the civil seryice taking purt in politics." The wholetenour of these new regulations is to effect Ml im». provement in the human machinery of the different departments of the General Government, but at the ' same time they disclose the fact that the spirit of them is " centralism." .Every circumstance of onnsequence connected with each, office muet t-s repotted to the Minister at Wellington, and " application! tor leave of absence must, ia all cases, be made in Writic} by or through the pern.anent bead, to the Minister of the department;" and the Only exceptions allowable for an officer's absence, from bis offioi are those of "sudden illnees, or other emergency," whioh must be immediately reported to the- Responsible Minister. If it was the desire of the.framer of this new code of : regulations to render the service of the General Go* rerhmont unpalatable, and also io make iti employee* serril*. I think it will be acknowledged that it will prove to be.eminently succesafol in securing the»e ends; but I say " Good Lord deliver this Provine* from, the despotio rule of the General Government," and to which prayer I fervently respond ': ■ • . ■ Aeor. : Eebtnary 1, 18«8. . ~..■...!