DEPARTMENTAL ORGANISATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1929, Page 10

DEPARTMENTAL ORGANISATION.

If the Prime Minister’s contention that the amalgamation of the Tourist and Commerce Departments will result in more economical and efficient administration is borne out by experience there should be some hope of further departmental re-organisation with a resultant decrease in the enormous cost of government. It is satisfactory to note that the reorganisation so far as staff is concerned is to be left to the Public Service Commissioner, though the question naturally arises . whethei* it would not be wise to seek outside the Civil Service for the head of the new department. It would seem, essential that he should have had commercial experience of some magnitude and a man with actual experience of modern publicity and tourist work might be of the greatest assistance to that branch of the combined department. The decision to reorganise the representation of New Zealand in . Australia has not come any too soon. To be effective it must carry with it sufficient financial backing to make the New Zealand office in Sydney conformable to its importance. A suite of offices in a side street and three or four storeys up from the ground does hot attract much attention, and there are many ways in which economies could be better made than in the use of second-rate office accommodation. The decision to subordinate Melbourne to Sydney is apparently the outcome of the removal of the Commonwealth Government to Canberra. It can be in no way a reflection upon the New Zealand representative there, Mr. H. J. Manson, for his work for the Dominion in Victoria has been an outstanding success. Were it decided to put Mr. Manson in charge of the larger work in Sydney there would be general approval throughout the Commonwealth, and the taxpayers of the Dominion could feel assured their interests were in safe hands. Primarily, however, the importance of the amalgamation of the two departments is as an earnest of. further economies in administration. '