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Otago Daily Times, Issue 17039, 25 June 1917, Page 4

A suggestive remark towards the close of a lecture last week by Mr J. Blair Mason may have escaped the attention of people who are not in the habit of reading technological dissertations. Alluding- to the establishment of an efficiency board in relation to the maintenance of industrial activity during the war, Mr Mason hinted at the desirability of giving .permanent tenure, apart from war conditions, to that or some similar body of business experts, .with a view to the intelligent fostering and guidance of industries essential to national prosperity. " One' might go, a step further," be said, " and follow Mr Lloyd George in casting precedent to.the windfc and placing the great industrial departments of State under the control, hot of politicians, but of men of mark in the particular business controlled by the department." Professional politicians may not take kindly to the idea, which, however, need not on that account be dismissed as visionary or impracticable in these days when the word 'J impracticable" seems in a fair way to being banished from the vocabulary of life. New Zealand has not adopted any radical reforms of public system and practice during the war period; and, though' change is not to b'e desired for the mere sake of change, there is unquestionably a feeling that' Government and Parliament, as well as a large section of the community, are too apathetically disinclined to take advantage of the special opportunities of development and' improvement which the spirit of the present epoch appears to supply. It would not be at all alarming if this dominion at no distant date were to venture upon some approach to the System of " employing experts for experts' work," even in the control of departments which necessarily hawe a political relationship. No doubt the difficulties in respect to parliamentary representation would be more serious here than in England, but they might not be insuperable.

Mr Lloyd George's new system was devised to meet the exigencies of a momentous crisis, and also it is still in the experimental stage. It is not likely, however, to be abandoned at the close of the war! No doubt there will be modifications, and some departments will automatically disappear; but the jaunty old practice of putting square men into round holes will not be wholly revived. We should be able to feel assured, for instance, that the department of Education will never again bo entrusted to a mere party placeman without expert educational knowledge. Nearly twenty years ago Lord Rosrebery, with pointed irony, suggested! that it might be desirable to conduct the business of the country on business lines. Post-war problems will call for expert service not less urgently than do the problems of the war itself. It is true that the initial workings of the new system have been severely criticised in some quarters—in thr press more frequently than in Parliament. Here is a typical judgment from the Westminster Gazette: .

In the general conduct of affairs there is a great deal of energy and a .rood deal of confusion. Some of the new men are excellent, others no «004 ei eIL The

Government grows and gi-ows until its members are as tho sand of the sea, and every day brings us a. now "Controller." But the attempt to govern without a Cabinet is not a success; and the deficiency cannot bo made good by any Secretariat. Had tho old Cabinet been in power, it would by now have been far in advance of the present one on such a question as National Service, and have had fax more definite and coherent plana. It may be suspected, however, tliat this criticism, and some others of similar trend, are not quite free from the taint of the old party feeling, which, on the Liberal side, resents the supersession of Mr Asquith and " the old gang."