The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1912. NO NEW ZEALANDER NEED APPLY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8266, 31 October 1912, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1912. NO NEW ZEALANDER NEED APPLY

Great indignation is being expressed on every hand at tho action of the Massey Ministry and its satellites in insisting on inviting applications abroad for an expensive mild-mannered young man to take charge of tho railway service. It has long been realised that we have the men here on tho spot who would make amply good if they wefo allowed a free hand. Instead of that tho railways have been fooled by political influence. Enormous sums are being expended in running empty and unpay. able trains in some localities to still local clamor, while in others there is not enough engines and rolling stock to meet the demands of legitimate payable traffic. Three commissioners drawn from the railway ranks and given a free hand, subject only to Parliamentary control, would give good results. Tho appointment of a mild-manner-ed, high-salaried young man from abroad subject to political pull and pressure and dependent upon disappointed and reluctant officialdom for advice will achieve nothing but chaos.

It has been reserved to the .Prime Minister to use the tu quoque argument in on© of its most stupid forms. While Sir Joseph Ward was addressing the House on Tuesday night in condemnation of the proposal to import a general manager of railways at £JOOO a year Mr Massey interjected, “Well, you sent Home for a defence expert. If Mr Massey has no more effective commentary to make than this we are inclined to imagine that most of his followers would be relieved if he held liia peace. Th© suggestion that Sir Joseph Ward’s hostility to the Ministerial proposal in relation to the railways can bo met by reminding him that General Godley was sent for to England is an obvious absurdity. Th© two cases are not parallel nor have the circumstances in which the two appointments stand even an approximation one to the other. If we had had in New Zealand for even a fair length of time a defence system worthy of th© name officered throughout by men trained to service and administration —men who were making a military career their life’s work —there would bo something to say against the importation of a commandant. In fact the same arguments could be used in opposition to such an appointment as aro now being used in reference to Mr Herries’ young man, whom “we cannot hope will he a first-rater.” But wo were without either service or system, and there was nothing for it but send abroad for the man we required, just in th© same way as the Government sent to England for an expert in hydro-electrical work, and when electric tramways were first installed in th© Dominion specialists from outside were engaged by the various municipalities to direct and supervise their inauguration. But the case is very different with th© railway service. This has been in operation for many years, and has grown from small beginnings to its present great dimensions. During its period of development men have grown up in the department who are conversant with the system from a to z, are familiar with the local and general conditions, and have for years discharged important service to the State. Their lives have been spent in directing various branches of the railway activity, and according to every rule observed in the conduct of private and public business in this and other countries to the most competent of these men should be given the position their service and experience entitle .them to look forward to. We take men from the New Zealand Bar to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court Bench. Men trained in New Zealand are entrust* ed with carrying out our public works, are appointed to administer such important departments as the post office, the Treasury, and the Public Trust office. We make New Zealanders Ministers of the Crown, and men who years ago entered as boys our most important financial, commercial, insurance and shipping enterprises are now managers and directors of these concerns. The argument that the Railways must bo regarded as singular in that the service after all these years is unable to produce a man capable of discharging the responsibilities is too ridiculous for serious credence. The departure of sending away for a young man trained in a different environment to undertake those duties is just as absurd as it would be to go on indef’n:tcly importing “experts” for the Defence Department and placing them over the heads of .officers trained in the service of which the foundations were -ccontly laid.

It seems among some of our friends t o be reenrd' , d ns a sign of “co!on : al arrogance” that protest should be •undo against this appointment, and ingenious attempts are made to turn f be argument into a discussion of whether it can be possible New Zealanders “have nothin!? to learn.” The average man can bo depended on to have sufficient sense not to be side-tracked by controversies of this character. No sane citizen supposes that there is nothing to be learned from the practice and experience of other countries in the management of railways and other public services. Nor, except by taking unwarranted liberties with the lan-

"nag?, can it be called ■'arrogance” to claim t'aat our own affairs should be managed by our own people, provided we have amongst us those who are capable of the work required. If it is unreasonable to argue that after having engaged in running railway's for forty years tho country cannot look to itself for tho man to manage the railways, then it becomes reasonable to insist that for the direction of all other important concerns the services of young men trained elsewhere should be sought.

Wo are unfeignedly glad to see Liberal members of tho House protesting against this affront placed by the Government upon tho railway officers—this cold-blooded announcement that for a highly-paid position in the public service no New Zealander need apply. It is an act which every young man and woman in tho country should remember against these Shamreforrners when tho time arrives for expressing disapproval of their action. Tho Minister says there is no one in the service suitable for the position, and his faithful henchmen take up tho parable without question. What does he or what do they know about it ? Mr Hordes has not been at tho Railway Department more than a few minutes. Confessedly he knows nothing about railway management, and yet ho comes apparently without hesitation to tho conclusion that Parliament must send away for someone to take such charge as the general manager is allowed to exercise. Tho fact that the Mackenzie Government had made a similar proposal helps them not at all, for that Administration was but a thing of tho moment frantically clutching at straws, and on this matter made one of its many mistakes. If Dir Herries had any experience in his department his dogmatism might, perhaps, bo excusable. As it happens lie went there to find “dissatisfaction” in tho service and among tho public, and like his predecessor immediately jumped to tho conclusion that this was duo to the officers of the department. His remedy has already set the service burning with indignation, and filled tho public with astonishment at the Minister’s narrowness of vision. On the day ho makes this appointment of an outsider at the highest salary paid to any public officer in tho Dominion—the whole railway service will be sacrificed to the incompetent blundering of successive Ministers who made tho officers of the department scapegoats of a system the politicians have abused. Ministers have interfered with and over-ruled the department in every matter essential to the proper management of the railway service. They have meddled with this, that, and tho other thing—have ordered trains to be run hero and run there—insisted that concessions shall be made in one direction after another—until we have the paradox of a railway service carrying packs of hounds, polo ponies, and racehorses at half price, but unable to make reductions in the charges levied on children. All this has seriously prejudiced legitimate operations, and Mr Herries, instead of taking his finger out of the pie, and giving the officers of the department a chance to show whether they can run tho railways profitably or otherwise satisfactorily* ungenerously places upon their shoulders responsibility for “ expressions of dissatisfaction among the community ” the officers are not entitled to bear, and tells us that tho cure for what he complains about must he sought in summoning a mild-mannered, youthful stranger to take £3OOO per annum. , Mr Herries disappoints us. Had ho said to Parliament: “ There is dissatisfaction, and it arises from the department not being given definite instructions as to what we expect it to do. My policy is that the department shall achieve such-and-such results. The officers shall be responsible for getting them, and I am going to give them the opportunity of showing whether they can.” If he had said this the community could have understood and probably admired him. But he is doing the exact opposite—he is giving a chance to-neither the men who are here on the spot nor tho smooth young stranger shortly to arrive, for even tho juniors in the service could tell him that eo long as the Minister of Railways tinkers with purely railway matters neither Solomon nor the Angel Gabriel could make good.