THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XV, Issue 759, 16 February 1867, Page 3

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

[From the Nelson Eiaminer , Fob. 7,]

It may be objected to the remarks thnt wd havo made on tho subject of our Civil Service and it 3 vast expense, that we have suggested nothing except that what we now havo is vory expens\voand that wo can ill afford that expense. Even this, wo main fain, it was well to do, even if wo could do no moi;e. it is certainly well to know when expenditure is oxtruvagant • it is even more important to know that our means aro not equal to the drain upon them ; aftd if wo have convinced anyone of those two things wo havo contributed something towards a reform. Bat wo go farther than this. We assert that tho abuses of our Government are things not only to be pointed out and grumbled at but to bo amended. This colony is a very young one as yet. Its mode of governmeut is not yet a stereotyped thing ; its abuses have notyetgofcso firm a hold npon ns that we cannot, if we are bent ou doing so,- ahake them off. What is needed is only «n intelligent idea of fhoevil in alljts magnitude, and our politicians will soon discern that it is nob for thortr to find difficulties, but rather to find tho way out of those difficulties of which the country" haa grown only too keenly conscious. In appealing, therefore, as wo now do to the common sonse of tho people at large— in asking tho quostion of theiii, Whether they think it can be necessary to maiulain regiments of clerks j anfi to spend hnndreds of thonsamls a-year in paying them f wo really make our appeal to the politicians of tho colony, and we think it ig a sort of appeal which they will all understand. Let the publio ouly show that it knows of the abuse of which wo complain, and the politicians must open their eyes to them also, and begin to make some efforts to get rid of them. In spite of this, however, weata not willing td confine ourselves to tbe mere sngg»itiou of tho evil of our administration.- W#have said a good deal about the vast expenditure and overgrown proportions of the Civil Service, and before leaving this part of our subject we shall briefly itidicate one or two modes by which we thiuk some reform might be effected. Before we conclude our survey of the financial arrangements of the Government, we may have occasion to suggest dhangos which, if carried 6ut, would do much moro than make merely small savings in departments, by the absolute demolition of some of them altogether ,- in the meantime, however^ we shall not enter on so largo a question.^ And, in the first place, the Report of tho Civil VSorvico Commissioners leads direct to one consideration. An elaborate comparison is there instituted betwuen the salaries of Government officials nnd those of mercantile and banking firms. This is, no donbe, a useful table as it stands, but we cannot but think it would have added greatly to its value if a comparison had been made between not only the salaries paid, but also the work done. This is not a pleasant theme on which feo speak; but wo dv not see that wo can follow tho example of the Commissioners by saying nothing* about it in this place. It is to be remembered; that the work of the civil servants of the colony is connected for the most part with the collection, and expenditure of something over a million of money in the year. Tho transactions are largeoncs, therefore, and it would naturally "give employment to many clerks. But it is not true that they are largo beyond the analogy of other businesses. There are mercantile firms that do quite as much work, and that deal with far larger riums of money in a twelvemonth than the civil servants of New Zealaud. Of oourse there are_a good many peculiarities in a Government service which have a tendency legitimately to increase the work ; but we assert that an allowance — au ample allowance — may be made for these, and yet we shall iiud that no such difference in the work wi&appear as ought lo account for anyi tiling approaching to tho actual difference of its cost. An utter stranger's first impulse would be to suggest that perhaps the system was a bad one, and Enafc possibly the servants wonj too much inclined to tako it easily. Wo think » nearer acquaintance with the facts would go to confirm the stranger in both those impressions. The system on which our publio offices is con* ducted is otio of the most intrieato circumlocution. Let anyone try to get an answer to a very simple question from any ono of the Govermnenb departments, and it is ten chances to one that he waits some weeks for his answer ; thac in some shape or other hi 3 question and its reply has passed through at least a dozen hands, and has bgruo a startling crop of memoranda, queries, nnd notes. This is perhaps the simplest illustration of the mischief, but there avo others which are well known throaghout the colony. The' regulations, for instance of tho .Trcasuryj td which we referred not vory long ago, are the most wonderfully intricate machinery extant for creating work and increasing official patronage. The way in which the money is passed backwards and forwards from office to" office and from hand to hand, affords a specimen of official legerdoin&in. more than rivalling the well-known tricks of thimble-rig and other humourd of Greenwich Fair. Possibly tho intellectual esereise ofdis; covering where money ought to be found at any given t'ni3 in the Government cheats,, may afford a pleasing amusement to the heads of departments inj Wellington in their hours of leisure ; but. we are vory sure that if the Colonists only kuew how large a proportion of the cost of departments was owing to the work thus produced, they would feel inclined to move this pleasing gratification out of their reach. As foil tho ques ; bion of tho amount of work done by tho Government clerks, the publica lready professes to know something about, this. The expression, " Go^ vernment Stroke," has obtained a tolerably strong hold upon the public" iriind, and is familiar in tho public mouth as household words. Nor is it it mere phrase without foundation. Govcrnmenc officers, as a rule, work fewer hours, and work in a more leisure^ way, than other clorkfi. Work from ten till four each day, with plentY of time for lunch, and no very sovoro reprimand for late attendance in tbe morning, these, it must be confessed, are conditions which go far to account for the existence of a good many officials to do but little work. Let any merchant in the colony bo asked to take a thorough-bred Government; clerk — we beg pardon, we should say officer — into his employment^ aud by the way in which ho would decline the offer, sonle idea may bo'formed of the character of the school afforded by our Civil Service.

To all thi3 the answer may be made, Bafc vrbsS would you do with tho existing otlicials ? The' questions is a difficult one, no doubt, but, in the interests of the colony, we see only ona answer' that could be given to it. Wo ".rould reform where that was possible, we woald dismiss wher© it was not. Goven:aieufc officers tre net moro stupid than other men by naturo 3 we take ifc ; and when they found that the old state of things had passed away they would generally learn to accommodate themselves to olio new. In any case the country ought not to suffer. It miglio ba necessary to get rid of many old officials, aud in our opinion their pensions would be well spenb money. In auy reform of departments the main thing to bo insisted upon would require to be absolute thorongbntisa. A little of the old leaven would scon corrupt ( he whole, whether that leaven, was in tbe system, or in the way it was carried into practice. Have we no statesman able-enough to £ot on fbot this good work for us ? None who * is willing to boar the brunt of the odium attached; to it for tho sake of the colony ?

Mr. Bright ut the Reform dinner at the Mm - choster Ftpo Trade Hall on Tuesday, at which 1)00 persons c'.ined told an udinirabio story of typical Conservative. There was Jtn-cld gent lonian, he said, near UuciiJalef, wry wealthy, but exceedingly penurious, who always objected to a tnilor, on the fundamental ground Hint ho had foaud out fhat " a iliolo' would last longer thau a patch." Conservation cannol go much deeper fch »n mat, exeppt perhaps to tbo still higher genciali^aticn tliat nothiug will umally lott louder thu'i something. "Pure Beiug," as HerjMi iaj-*, " it pute N r jt Sii»-tr»" •md as Conservation tsikr * its sfand n>i pf-o bnuit,', it naturally prefers an ..ctual holo to a potantia! patch, ospi>oii!'y th it hfie ir> the <"oiiFtitai;ion v,hera tin) wt>:-K wj- chinos on.'ht to I", snti are , ir>^, tr> M>c- \\t I) I hi. , ju;j'i>:t r.; i^.n there.'-"