THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1935 CIVIL SERVICE PROBLEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22172, 27 July 1935, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1935 CIVIL SERVICE PROBLEMS

Civil servants are reported to be keenly interested in the succession to

the Public Service Commissionership left vacant by the recent resignation of Mr. Verschaffelt. Their interest is

natural in view of the powers exercised by the Commissioner. By the ■same token every citizen is concerned in the appointment to the office, upon which falls much of the responsibility for the smooth and efficient working of State administration. Yet it is probably true that few people outside the Civil Service have given a thought to the matter. They are plagued and they grumble at this or that extension of State powers, at the constantly increasing regulation of their activities and the growing tax demands on their purses, lout they take very little interest in the machinery of the Public Service, through which every Government must work. That apathy is no doubt due to the fact that it has always been the British custom to blamß the Government and not its instrument, to fix the responsibility upon Ministers and not upon their departments, to call the master to book and not the servant. The custom has its foundation not merely in fair play, but also in the Constitution. which establishes representative Government with its corollary of Miniiiterial responsibility. Hence, for the greater part, the public is incurious about the CivH Service. Sometimes there is a kick about red tape or interference, although even then it is generally directed at the Government. This comparative immunity of the Civil Service is a good thing in some ways, but a bad one in others. A meddlesome attitude by the public in departmental business would be the reverse of helpful, but citizens should satisfy themselves that in a general way the administrative machine is so recruited and organised as to produce efficiency. The functions of the State have increased so rapidly in recent years that this requirement has become a political, imperative, although it is seldom made a part of the common stuff of politics. In fa:t it is 23 years since Civil Service reform was last a major issue ii New Zealand politics; The question is whether the time has not arrived for another investigation into the staffing and working of the I administrative machine. It has I grown out of all knowledge since 1912. Has the commissioner system adoptee! then proved so entirely satisfactory that there is no room for improvement? It is notable that in Britain the authorities are not content with the admirable professional service they have elaborated. Every f;w years a new commission is named or another committee appointed to inquire into the working of the system and to suggest reforms or improvements. The general public may not be alive to the importance of maintaining the highest efficiency in the Civil Service, but the British Government and a vigilant minority are, and think money well spent on, these successive investigations. It is recognined that efficiency cannot he assured, unless the service is able in the first place to attract to itself the best material available and, in the .second place, to assure smooth and contented "work by close attention to details of staffing and conditions, as well as by providing incentives. through ordered promotion and salary increments. So much care is taken, not only because the State sets out, to be a good employer, but also because of the vital part the professional administrator has come to play in all government. In his book on "How Britain is Governed," Mr. Rairrsay Muir carefully examines the part played by the Civil Service and concludes: —

In our system of government the power of bureaucracy is enormously strong, whether iri administration, in legislation, or in finance. Under the cloak of Ministerial responsibility unci Cabinet dictatorship, it lias thriven and grown until, like Frankenstein's monster, it sometimes seems likely to devour its creator. It is not, of course, wholly uncontrolled; its action is profoundly modified by the temper and character of the political chiefs under whose nominal control :it works. But when all is said, it has bocome the most vital and most potent element in our system of govern'ment, although in the. eyes of the law it wields scarcely any formal authority.

Mr. Muir's measured words apply as truly in New Zealand as in Britain. The Civil Service, which seldom becomes a political issue, is actually at the heart of politics. And so long as the State clings to the multitude of functions it has assumed, some element of bureau-

1 cracy is unavoidable. In its endleßS labours—political, social and economic—the Government must use a large professional staff as its instrument. As Mr. Muir points out, the mere volume of the work to be done makes it more and more impossible for the Ministers in nominal control of the departments to exercise effective mastery. Moreover, the new functions involve more and more expert knowledge, which the Ministers seldom possess. For that reason the British system of recruitment is designed to attract from the schools and the universities first-class administrative and professional talent. Is New Zealand's system as effective in that way? Is the highest division of the Civil Service distinguished by the searching educational standards, intellectual force and administrative ability that marks out its opposite number in Britain? When the enormous powers wielded by the modern State are considered, no one will doubt the importance of such questions. New Zealand recruits her first division servants at an earlier stage than Britain. Does that give as good results? The occasion of appointing a new commissioner might well be used to inquire into that and other points of Civil Service organisation.