THE CIVIL SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8320, 29 July 1890, Page 5

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

MEETING IN WELLINGTON.

PROPOSED UNION.

[by TELEGRAPH.SrECIAI. REPORTER.] Wellington, Monday. A large meeting of Civil Servants was held on Saturday evening for the purpose of considering the present position and prospects of the service, in view (I) of the action now taken and threatened by a certain section of the House in Committee of Supply with regard to Civil Sorvice salaries ; (2) of the new Civil Service Bill introduced by tho Government, (3) of the results of the combination formed by the officers of the Postal and Telegraphic Departments for mutual self-protection. The attendance was confined to members of the service other than heads of departments, but it was arranged that the names of those present should nob be allowed to transpire lest this should prejudice their interests. At this early stage of the affair Saturday night's meeting and proceedings were necessarily of only a preliminary character, but the situation was carefully considered and freely discussed. The civil servants recognised that the time had come to form a Union or Civil Service Association. Attention was drawn to the fact that, in the present movement for a reduction of salaries, tho Postal and Telegraphic Departments were specially excepted from the general Those departments havo formed a Union, and consequently held a far stronger position than any other branch of the service. It was then agreed that the formation of a Civil Service Association, which should comprehend all departments and ranks of the Civil Service was desirable, that a future meeting should be held for the further consideration of tho steps to be taken, and that the heads of departments should bo requested to givo their counsel as to the best course to be adopted. The proposed Association would, of course, include tho Postal and Telegraphic Departments Union, and also all heads of departments. The promoters of tho movement are naturally anxious to avoid undue personal prominence lest they should be marked men, as were the telegraph operators who went 011 strike some years ago, and whose ringleaders were not only dismissed, but also persecuted in letters to other Colonial Governments. I understand that the members of the service aro very desirous that the present Civil Service Bill with some modifications, or one 011 similar lines, should be passed as soon as possible in order that tho service may bo placed on a solid and permanent footing, and may not be in perpetual dread of attack and interference. It will probably be one prominent object kept in view by the proposed Association to promote the passage of such a Bill. I believe that the senior members of tho service warmly favour the Bill as a whole, but would like to see it somewhat amended in committee. It was pointed out to me by one of them that the provision requiring the three next senior officers to bo recommended by the Service Board for any vacant appointment, and for 0110 to be selected is partly supererogatory and partly objectionable. It is supererogatory because it the three next senior officers must be recommended for selection there is 110 need for the Board to act as tho process becomes automatic, and involves the mere selection by Ministers from the three officers next in seniority to the one retiring. The Board's action would thus be a mere farce. The phrase held by an experienced head of department to be objectionable is the provision that, mere seniority, irrespective of merit, shall give a claim to inclusion in the trio for selection, because it obviously follows that in process of time all the good men will thus be picked, leaving out inferior men to come up through mere length of their service. The heads of departments would prefer a process of selection by merit, irrespective of seniority, except that seniority should be taken into consideration in case of approximately equal merit. It is understood that if the proposed Association be formed, it will bo allied to the Railway Servants' Union. I gather from some of tho more experienced civil_ servants that the present time is rather inopportune for a movement of the sort., inasmuch as Parliament is in session, and they hold the recess to be a more suitable time for action. As, however, such pronounced action is being taken during the present session with regard to the Civil Service by the Government, in introducing their new Bill, and by the Opposition in cutting clown the Estimates, they do not see how some counter movement 011 the part of civil servants can well be delayed.