Truth CIVIL SERVICE APPEALS

NZ Truth, Issue 1127, 7 July 1927, Page 6

Truth

CIVIL SERVICE APPEALS

NJBJVV ZEALAND HEAD. OFFICE:

LUKE'S LANU WELLINGTON. . ,

. BRANCH OFFICES: — ; New Zealand: AuilraUa: AUCKLAND: 13 Commerce Street SYDNEY: 112 King Street. CHRISTCHURCH: 102 Gloucester Street. NEWCASTLE: Scott Street DUNEDIN: 111 Stuart Street. .. MELBOURNE: 244-6 Little • Lonsdale — BRISBANE: 215-217 Adelaide Street Commoner. TASMANIA: Hobart THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1927.

f\NE matter to which some attention should be devoted this session concerns the system under which appeals by civil servants are heard. At the present time the Appeal Board is a Star Chamber first and last, and every principle of British justice is infringed. The civil servant appealing to it has practically no chance of success, an£ he is placed under certain disadvantages which are not tolerated m any other court of justice. ! In the first place it is necessary for an appellant to lodge 1 his appeal m writing, setting forth the grounds upon which he ' relies. A brief acknowledgment of the receipt of this is all that he receives. He is. not even told when the appeal is to be heard, and he is not advised until the last moment, when he is curtly informed that he must be present for the hearing of his appeal on such and such a day. When that day arrives he is still m complete ignorance of the case against him. No details of it are furnished to him m advance, with the result that he is unable to prepare an answer or to call witnesses to repudiate the statements made against him, - That is not justice, and every appellant should be entitled to ask and receive a copy of the defence against his appeal, so that he may be m a position to answer it at the hearing of his appeal. In the' law courts that principle always operates; why . should it not also be the case with the Civil Service Appeal Board? ' That is one instance of the iniquity of the present system, and it is typical of the whole Star Chamber methods of the system of -anneal.