WELLINGTON NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9030, 17 April 1888, Page 5

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Monday.

THE GOVERNMENT ASSURANCE

DEPARTMENT.

The new arrangement in this Department is attracting a good deal of notice, and giving occasion to some rather pointed diacussion. Briefly stated, the office of actuary is made independent of the Commissioner, the office of superintendent of branches is placed under the actuary instead of the Commissioner, and the offices of secretary and commissioner are coordinated in a manner not very clearly explained. If this were a private establishment, carrying on the business of a company, these changes would not have much significance. The phrase, "General Manager," being substituted for Commissioner would merely indicate the various collateral powers, whose cooperation secures the successful business of each year in large profit to the policy-holders. But the guarantee of the colony brings the Treasurer of the colony into the Department, and the Department has been hitherto organised in accordance with the terms of an Act of the Colonial Legislature. The Department was by statute created in 1869. This Act, under which it was first constituted, was amended the following year (1870), and again in 1874, the last named act providing for the office of Commissioner, under warrant of the Governor, which office was to be held at pleasure. In 1884 Sir Julius Vogel, by a statute, abolished the Commissioner, who became " General Manager," and established a Board of Management, which was not successful, so that by an Act passed in 1886 the Board of Management was abolished and the office of "Commissioner" was nominally revived. It is necessary to make this explanation, because there is a good deal of twisting and mixing up changes with a view to establish a case of arbitrary authority exercised by the Premier, and what is described as a " revolutionary tendency in the present Government to ignore all statutory restraint." The indictment laid against the Government proceedings ae stated by the Post is as follows:—"The powers, duties, and functions of the Commissioner are defined pretty fully, and the whole meaning and spirit of the Act is that the department shall be under the control and management of the Commissioner, who is, amongst other things, charged with the duty of reporting to the Colonial Treasurer monthly and annually to Parliament. Aβ to the other officers, the appointments stand on a very different footing as provided by the Act, the Governor simply being given power to appoint and employ such actuaries, clerks, and other officers as may be required. None of them are invested with any statutory powers, and their intended subordination to the Commissioner is obviously implied." The statement that none of the ordinary officers aro vested with any statutory power surrenders a good deal of the contention affirmed in the rest of the article, and makes the statutory character of the Commissioner a matter of implication merely ; but the duties of Commissioner remain the same as they were before. The idea that pervades the mind of the writer is that the changes referred to affect the question of responsibility ; but I am informed that this is not the case. In uo similar establishment could it be said that the General Manager (or Commissioner) controls the actuary. The latter officer i 6 a professional expert, wholly independent of the management in most cases. Whether the superintendent of branches should be immediately connected with the actuary or immediately with that of the manager is a question of convenience. The responsibility of the Commissioner is not removed. It is not contended that the Commissioner

is reduced to such a position that he is fundus officio, for it is clear that the vast amount of general supervision and clerical work is distributed between him and the secretary. The changes are simply forms of improved organisation. It is not contended that the Commissioner held his office "by Act," and that only an Act could remove him. His " statutory character" underwent a change in the changes of management consequent upon altered legislation. This indictment against the Premier and Government is certainly not sustained by the evidence adduced to prove it. The self-complacency of the writer offers the way to the suspicion that the occasion is used as convenient for an assault upon the Government position on the immediate approach of the session of Parliament. THE NEW PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE. I understand that a circular has been forwarded to the members of the House of Representatives, intimating the changes proposed to be made in the hours to be appointed for sitting next seesion. A request is made that hon. members will make (in reply) any suggestion they may think desirable. Upon the receipt of the answers of members, the form in which the subject shall bo submitted to the House will be agreed to, as the result of a conference between the Speaker, Sir G. M. O'Rorke, who is now in. Wellington, the Premier, and possibly Sir William Fitzherbert, the Speaker of the Legislative Council.