PUBLIC SERVICE CONTROL.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13646, 11 February 1913, Page 6

PUBLIC SERVICE CONTROL.

OOMMISSIONEIIS MAKE

INQUUUES

AN AWKWARD INCIDENT.

(From Our Own Corrospondeut.)

Wellington, Feb. 10. The activities of the three Public Sorvico Commissioners, though appreciated iv some directions (as indicated by me last week), appear to haw<s caused not a nttle commotion, m tho Civil Sorvioo recently. The new officials are fnaking a special point of personally getting into toucli with the work oi all departments. In thp course of their inquiries they question men when at work as to their remuneration and duties.. Some complaints have been «aado that the questions have taken the awkward form of cross-examination, with unsympathetic comment from "th<-»' Oommissioner. Members of the serviceadmit that there are anomolous difference® in pay for the same class of work;oad there will be no objection to the apliorcnt plan of the Commissioners of doing away with the watertight compartlilent system which has narrowed the opportunities for capable men, but they Itear with alarm the storie s now in circulation alleging that one Commissioner has pointedly condemned come salaries as preposterously high, ■.'•••■;..■-•„. Things Jiave . not, gone smoothly in .connection with .the departmental tour. Onoiiish official in a section of the Customs .department is/reported to have Jbeen ro incensed at the remarks passed hy one of the Commissioners in the prets^iK-e of his subordinates that he promptly resigned in protest. The good offioe© of a Cabinet Minister are said to bavo smoothed over the rough patch, wttich thus early appeared in the track of the now recime, but,the incident has naturally created an unpleasant 'impression. '.'..■