THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, May 2, 1941. ACTING APPOINTMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24596, 2 May 1941, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, May 2, 1941. ACTING APPOINTMENTS

A change in designation without any change of duties may be said to be the effect of the Government's latest decision with reference to the principal executive officer of the Reserve Bank. Mr W. F. Ward, who has been deputy governor of the bank since it was brought into existence, lias now become acting governor. The term of his appointment as deputy-governor expired on April 30, and it was suggested a month ago that when that date arrived the Government would indicate what it proposed to do in the matter of the selection of a successor to.Mr.Leslie Lefeaux as governor of the bank. We now see that it has had recourse to the unsatisfactory expedient of making an .acting appointment. Whether the appointment of Mr Ward as acting governor means that there will be an appointment of an acting deputy-governor we shall see later on. Possibly the Government may argue that the office of deputygovernor has become a superfluity. For "the Government," Mr Nash told the Labour Party's annual conference, " now has complete control of the banking system." And it is true that the Government has so shred the bank of its power that the Minister of Finance may to a large extent dictate its policy. It is reasonable, however, to assume that it is the intention, of the that, within the limits set by its own action, the bank shall continue to function as, in Mr Nash's words, "one of New important institutions." If this be. a correct assumption it is pertinent to observe that the delay on the- part of the Government in making an appointment to the office of governor of the bank is simply inexplicable. It would be explicable only on the other assumption that it is the deliberate purpose of the Government to discredit the bank and to rob it of the status which a central bank should possess. • The governorship of the Reserve Bank is not the dnly important office an appointment to which is being held in abeyance: An even more glaring instance is provided in the mandated territory of Western Samoa. For more than five years there has been no occupant of the position of Administrator of the territory. When the present Government came into office in 1935, M r A. C. Turnbull was Acting-Commis-sioner. He has remained ActingCommissioner to this date. The vacillation of the Government in the matter of the appointment of a permanent Commissioner would be amusing if it were not utterly discreditable. Early in 1936, the House of Representatives was told that the appointment of a Commissioner was " under consideration." . A year later this statement was in effect contradicted. The appointment, does not seem to.have.been under consideration at all, for the. Prime Minister said that the Government, being desirous of moving warily . and of doing nothing in a hurry, would consider an appointment' at the earliest convenient date. A later. Ministerial announcement implied that the matter of an appointment had at least been advanced a stage, for it was "still being considered" and Parliament was solemnly informed that " things cannot be rushed " "and that it was a sound policy to let sleeping dogs lie. While its reference to sleeping dogs was obscure and unintelligible, the Government has certainly not laid itself open to the accusation of "rushing things," But its vacillation or its indifference has had the effect of placing Mr Turnbull in a seriously insidious position. It plainly derogates from his status in Western Samoa that his service for more than five years has not been considered by the Government to have been sufficiently valuable to justify his appointment to the office of Commissioner.