THE DEPARTMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8776, 4 July 1914, Page 6

THE DEPARTMENTS

AMALGAMATION SUGGESTED COMMISSIONER’S IDEAS ON THK SUBJECT. In his annual report, which was pre seated to Parliament yesterday, th( Public Service Commissioner devotes a great deal of attention to a complaint that there are too many smal. departments doing the work of the Public Service. After detailing these small departments and pointing out how they overlap in their work, Mr Robertson says; “What is required in this Dominion is a limited number of departments, in charge of permanent heads who will take control of all the clerical and accounting work and provide relief from one branch to the other a' may bo found necessary. Cadets entering such departments should be required to pass from one branch ’to another in the early years of their career, so as to . acquire a wide knowledge of the department and be available for any branch. In small departments cadets learn so little that their future usefulness is impaired. “Much cost to the country, and general inconvenience to all concerned, is caused by the necessity for professional heads having to deal with staff matters. A department with four or five clerical officers' is almost overwhelmed when a slight pressure of work occurs, and the work of the Public Service Commissioner is unnecessarily increased by having to search among departments to provide temporary relief. Such relief is rarely willingly given by permanent heads when it is required for another department; hut if large departments were created as suggested, any hesitation on account of official jealousy or otherwise would disappear so far as tho branches of that department might bo concerned. “Tho main point, however, is that the present system is unnecessarily costly, and not nearly so efficient as one with a limited number of permanent heads, who -alone should be described as administrative officers. The departments I recommend are the following fourteen in place of the existing thirty-three: (1) Treasury to include Advances to Settlers, Public Service Superannuation, and Old-age Pensions. (2) Internal Affairs, to include Public Health, Mental Hospitals, Immigration, Registrar-General, Statistician, and Government Printing. (3) Education. (4) Justice, to include Native. Cook Islands, Crown Law, and Prisons. (6) Trade and Industries, to include Industries and Commerce, Minos, Marine, Inspection of Machinery, Labour, Patents, Tourist and Health Resorts. (6) Agriculture. . (7) Inland Revenue, to include Land and Income tax, Stamps, Lands and Deeds Registry, and Valuation, (8) Lands and Survey, to include Lands for Settlement. (9) Customs and Excise. CIO) Government Insurance, to include National Provident Fund and Friend'y Societies. (11) Public Trust. (12) Public Works. (13) State Fire Insurance. (14) Post, and Telegraph. “ The Audit Department and tho civilian members of the Defence and Police Deparments are not included. It is necessary for tho Audit Office to have a staff which should maintain an existence apart from a permanent head other than tho Controller and AuditorGeneral. The present arrangement, under which a small proportion of the total staff of the Defence and Police Departments is subject to the Public Service Act, while the head is not, necessitates those officers being treated specially. DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRIES. “ In recommending a Department of Trade and Industries, instead of a number of independent departments performing work which is more or less inter-related, I hare in view the great developments likely to take place in the near future. Details of the administration of such a department will, no doubt, bo a matter for discussion. As a matter of convenience, I have suggested tho inclusion of the Tourist and Health Resorts Department; but tho work of. this department would probably be better performed by tho Railway Department, the hospitals and medical officers under the Tourist and Health Resorts Department being transferred to tho Public Health branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. “Unfortunately, the provision of accommodation for Government departments in Wellington has not kept pace with the creation of new spheres of State activity .and the consequent expansion of the service, with the result that amalgamation, in some cases will be difficult. There is no reason, however, why tho building programme of the next few years should not be designed to carry out the proposals now made. CO-OPERATION WITHIN DEPARTMENTS. “ “There is one phase of departmental administration that calls for serious attention. It has been impressed on the Commissioners since they have taken control of the service that steps should he taken to bring the district officers more closely into touch with their head offices, m order to ensure a full and sympathetic correlation of the respective duties. “Local officers who are so situated as to be within easy and economical reach of Wellington should be brought much more frequently to their head office than has been the practice in the past, to discuss the various points that arise from time to time in the course of departmental work; and it is equally necessary that the permanent head should avail himself of every convenient opportunity to visit this district offices, and thus make himself thoroughly acquainted with local work and requirements. “Tho visits of the Commissioners to tie different portions of the Dominion have enabled them to say that a very marked improvement could be effected in the relations at present existing between the several offices of depart ments if they were brought more into touch with each other. It appears' to the Commissioners that at the pre sent time the fact that these district offices exist as part of one. organisation is overlooked to some extent. It has been found that instructions are drafted, forms sometimes printed, and schemes put into operation by head offices without the district offices being brought into consultation in regard to these oftentimes important

matters. In this way a department is .frequently deprived of the assistance of able and, enthusiastic officers, whose opinions and advice in regard to many matters affecting the organisation of the work would be of the greatest value.’*