CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14085, 12 June 1909, Page 4

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

Although there is no possibility of any immediate Parliamentary consideration being given to a Public Service Bill, and little possibility of such a measure being passed against the wishes of the Government of the day, it is well that Mr. Herdman seized the opportunity of calling public attention to the need for Civil Service Reform. Sir Joseph Ward may be as indignant as he pleases over the suggestion that the power of ordinary appointment to the public service shall be handed over to an "autocracy," and may prefer to see in the suggestion an attempt to interfere with retrenchment. But the public should know that the Civil Service Board system has been adopted by most democratic countries, as the best remedy for the gross interference of politicians. It is established in the United Kingdom, in the federal system of the United States, in New South Wales, and many other countries. That it is necessary in New Zealand is proved by the wholesale dismissals of Civil servants now going on, the Service having been overloaded for years as a part of the political methods of the Administration. The police force is a monumental example of the evil. Most of our police constables are honest, competent, and intelligent men, but among them are occasionally discovered bad characters, appointed through political influence. Were a Civil Service Board responsible for such appointments its members would be promptly dismissed, but nothing can be done where appointments are made as part of our political methods. Sir Joseph Ward is to be congratulated upon the retrenchments he is enforcing, and we may hope that the result will be a better staffing of our over-worked Northern services and offices; but, until the Dominion places appointments to the Civil Service completely outside of politics, we shall see the cycle of over-appointment and dismissal occur over and over again, with constant public loss and with ultimate individual suffering.