The Poberty Bay Herald

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1052, 25 June 1880, Page 2

The Poberty Bay Herald

PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING^ FBIDAY, JUNE 25, 1880. There is at present a very strong feeling existing respecting the maladministration of the Civil Service Departments of the Colony. There are, however, two sides to every question, and it is only fair that one side should have as fair a hearing as the other. The Wanganui Chronicle, which is edited, we believe, by a late Minister, and is certainly well and intelligently written, says with no little force of truth, that it is one thing to denounce the extravagance oi the Government, and the excessive amounts of salaries and number of officers, and quite a different and very much more difficult matter, to say where, and to what extent, reductions are to be made. Our contemporary the Wellington Post, does not help the public in the slightest degree in arriving at a conclusion on those points, and therefore his comments are worthless. The whole article in question may be summarised in these •words : — The finances of the country are in a bad state ; the services cost too much money ; the Government propose to make a reduction of •650,000 ' } in our opinion it is not nearly enough." That is about the substance ofthe article, which cannot be said to increase very much the Stock of public knowledge relating to the Civil Service. We may say at once that if the public of New Zealand have an expensive Civil Service they are themselves to blame for it in a very great degree. The people are positively luxurious with regard to their departmental ideas. Every petty village wants its Telegraph, Post-office, Court of Justice, and all the rest of it, and is therefore not a matter of surprise that the yearly bill totals up to large sums. "We do not believe that the people are prepared to be much worse served than they have been ; and, if that is so, then the only remaining ways of effecting retrenchment are by better arrangement and smaller salaries. The first is much safer, we should suppose, in the hands of the Ministry than in the hands of the Evening Post ; and with regard to the lower salaries, the Civil servants are entitled to have something urged on their behalf. It is a difficult matter in a great many instances to say what the market value of a Government official really is, for there may be no demand for them whatever by the general public. All that the Government can do is to roughly estimate the position which the Civil servant should occupy in the social scale, and give him enough to enable him with economy, to maintain that position. We very much question whether, on the whole, the Civil Service is paid more than that. In some instances officials are miserably under-

paid, and have the utmost difficulty in holding their own. In a very few cases large salaries are paid, but the recipients would not serve the Government for less, and their places could not be efficiently filled at a smaller rate of remuneration. There is no doubt that all the officers in one service could be filled up to-morrow at very much lower salaries than at present prevail, but by what sort of officials 1 There are quite as many idiots and incapables in New Zealand as in any other country, and this kind of people — unable to earn anything out of the service — would be content to take small pay in it. But they would give a deal more trouble than they were worth, and a return to better pay and better men would soon be as urgent a cry as the Evening Post now raises for retrenchment. The Civil Service of New Zealand is necessarily a very expensive one. The population is small and scattered ; there are many ports of entry ; there is an elaborate system of telegraphic and railway communication, which is entirely in the hands of the Government, and is rapidly being extended. All these things cost a mint of money, and the people of New Zealand will have them. They must therefore pay for them, and that they will never contrive to do out of miserable shavings from the salaries of officials. These officers have to pay their share of the taxes as everyone else has, and unless in instances in which it can be shown that too much is being paid in proportion to the services rendered, the salaries should not be interfered with. We have not the slightest doubt that this is exactly the difficulty which has been ielt by the Government — indeed it has been felt by every i New Zealand Government who have taken the expenditure of the Civil Service in hand with a view to its reduction. Considering the smallness of the population, the total amount of salaries seems, and no doubt is, very large, but when enquiry is made into the extent and character of the services rendered, it is found that, as individuals, the officers are not overpaid. We certainly have no wish whatever to see the Civil Service placed in an exceptionally good position, but it is better for the community that it should be served by capable men, and capable men don't work for nothing. As the country becomes more thickly populated, and rapid means of communication are multiplied, there is every reason for believing that, with good economical management, the cost of the Civil Service will be very considerably reduced per head of the population. That is to say, the present staff of officials will be able to overtake the work of the country when much more populated than at present. Our own opinion with regard to this question of reduction is, that the Government have done remarkably well — for a start. We think it quite possible that continued enquiry may show occasion for further amalgamation of offices, and simplification of the present system ; and we feel sure that no opportunity of reform in those directions will be lost sight of by Mr. Hall's Government and, notwithstanding all. that has been said to the contrary, we are satisfied that the Civil Service Commission will by no means be barren of results. It is worse than useless at the present moment to snarl at the Government for not having cut down the Civil Service expenditure lower than it has done.