The Oamaru Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1910.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10518, 28 July 1910, Page 3

The Oamaru Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1910.

A proposal for the establishment of a Board 10' take the

A Public management of the Service Board. Civil Service of the Dominion out of the hand of the Government is an insult to the democracy of the country, but cause it is a declaration that the democracy is incapable through its representative chosen chiefs of managing the service. Such a proposal strikes at the root of democracy just as hard as the actual establishment- of a board to manage the railways once did. The State, moreover, after resuming the management of the public lines has demonstrated the superiority of the State management. This is not wonderful at all, because the State has now demonstrated its superiority along a very complicated and various line of business management. The profits and the general results of the Government Insurance Departments, the Advances .Department, the Land for Settlement Department, the i'osfc Office Department, the Department of Lands and Agriculture—these are ail proofs of the fact that the democracy, that is the people, may he trusted, and the leading principle of democracy is to trust the people every time. Mr Hordman's motion was not, of course, confined to the establishment of the Board. It took also the ground of no-confidence in the Government. Naturally, the majority that has confidence in the Government rejected the motion, and the rejection was substantial. In this connection it is good in passing to note that the latest addition to the House, Mr Myers, who was supposed to have come out entirely as an Independent, voted with the Government. There is no ground for the supposition that whatever he may have been as a candidate, he is now an Independent. He has supported the Government on a crucial question. The main, argument adduced during a remarkably wild and discursive debate for the motion as a want-of-confidence motion was that the Government has not carried out its promised policv of retrenchment. There are verv many es-civil scervants who have practical proof to the contrary. But the main fact which does not seem to have been made as prominent in the debate as it deserved, is that while the earning services have, increased thenoutput enormously during the past year, this is the first time that the Finance Minister has had the pleasure of announcing an actual diminution of the volume of the annual expenses. Details were asked for vocilerously, and it seems to have been forgotten that they were given with satisfactory completeness by the Prime Minister during the recess. The closer exhibition of detail was more than any Minister could be reasonably asked for, and it was very properly refused. J lie feelings of the Opposition are rA course/something; but so are the feelings of the service. Between the two the House had no difficulty in deciding bv a majority, liberal enough to satisty the Liberal party of this country, that the public interests are m the right hands.