REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3464, 24 June 1880, Page 2

REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

MISMANAGEMENT OF THE WHOLE

SERVICE.

CORRUPT PRACTICES CARRIED ON.

SURVEY DEPARTMENT. This has always bee 1 a very costly branch of* the Government service, involving a total cslim.itcd expenditure for last year of £250,000. Having been regarded from si scientific and technical rather than a practical point of view, its management has, to a large extent, been left almost uncontrolled in the hands of specialists. The Commissioners regret to have to state that the}' have formed a low opinion of the real utility of a large portion of the work done. Incredible waste is incurred by useless and badly planned surveys. They recommehd that further surveys s.iould not be undertaken in excess of present requiremeut, and that practicable road lines should in all cases be laid out, and that a cheapet system should be .pursued as to pastoral land. The officers arc not solely responsible for the defects which arc partly duo to bad laws and outside pressure, and the Commissioners believe they would willingly and efficiently carry out the reforms indicated. - CROWN LANDS OVER- VALUED. The evidence taken by. the Commission proves the crown laud remaining unsold to be greatly over-valued. CUSTOMS. In the Customs there is extravagance in a needlessly large staff being maintained where the work is very small. It is recommended that the officers be utilised for other public duties. The returns of export values are deemed unreliable, being furnished by exporters themselves, who are interested in over-estimating, and should only supply returns of quantities not of values. POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC. Amalgamation of Postal and Telegraph offices, under one officer and. one roof, is advised wherever practicable, and more encouragement to skilful telegraphists is suggested. PRINTING} DEPARTMENT. The printing establishment, employing 132 hands, is large and costly, and does much useless work in printing documents of no public use or interest. TREASURY AND AUDIT. In the Treasury and Audit Departments there appears great complication without real efficiency in practice. Serious inconvenience and loss of time is caused by the excessive account keeping forced on engineers, surveyors and others, while, although a number of complicated forms are insisted on, there is no such real audit as would prevent dishonest persons from committing fraud. JUSTICE. The Department of Justice is needlessly costly, and appointments are made for reasons other than fitness. The number of District Judges and Resident Magistrates might be diminished, and the system generally revised. In some places there are too many police. The numerous small gaols are costly and objectionable. At Auckland 158 prisoners cost £30 13s. per head, and their labor was valued at £24 Us. lOd. per head. At Picton an average of oh persons cost £107 os. 9:1. per head, and earned nothing. In small gaols the expense is still greater. At Arrowtown,, where they have a prisoner two days a month, the cost of waiting pa him is at the rate of £2837 per annum. The services of the police should be utilised as gaolers. TRAVELLING ALLOWANCES. Travelling allowances range from 7s. 6d. to £2 per diem, according to salary. Such allowances ought only to cover actual outlay and not to be a source of profit. It is suspected that improper charges and entries have been made under this head. PENSIONS. Pensions are undesirable as interfering with that free choice of servants which is necessary ,to secure vigilant and attentive services. If "retained, there should be no element of uncertainty about them. GENERAL REFORM NECESSARY. The great principle to be observed in reforming the Civil Service in the same as that on which mercantile establishments are conducted. Men should be sought foi the work required, and not places sought for men trained to expect them. It has been tacitly understood that promotion would necessarily come in regular course of time, irrespective of merit or efficiency. This should cease utterly, and promotion be by merit alone. Departments and heads of * departments have been multiplied until the heads have grow.i out of all proportions to their bodies, and the cost of the service has been made excessive by paying high salaries to officers who contribute nothing to the efficiency of the service. There should be only a necessary numoer of heads at adequate salaries. Nothing could be mor.e undesirable than ft service composed of all officers and no rank and file, and the mere clerical work should only be paid for at its market value. Capable officers should be selected as leaders, organisers, and directors, such positions to be tilled up by meritorious officers who have risen in the ser- j vice. No mere automatic reductions in salaries are recommended, but a total re-organ-isation on the above footing. Each position in the department should remain at a stated salary, and promotion in the service should mean removal from a less to a more important or arduous position, and not in any case an increase of -salary for the performance of the same services. RETRENCHMENT. As a thirteenth of the whole adult malo population are in direct Government employment, an artificial scale of pay is created, founded on that of the Civil Service. This is detrimental to trade and progess. Civil servants should be required to work the ordinary mercantile hours. CONCLUSION. The Commissioners are quite prepared to j be accused of illiberality in these recommendations, but they deem pretended liberality unjustifiable in the financial condition of the Colony. Economy is imperative, the burden on so small a population being already ex cessive. Civil servants' salaries ro&e in prosperous times and must fall in a time of de- , pression. Reductions would be better made now than under- the influence of a panic, which might induce injustice. The report concludes as follows :—": — " We make our recommendations with .1 full knowledge of the opposition they will encounter, and of the thorny path any Government will tread that attempts to act on this report, but with a conviction that, if not now voluntari ly adopted, our proposals will ere long be forced on an impoverished community, who will then be ]

unable to carry them out with the moderation, " forbearance, foresight, and justice that wouid no*' be possible." The report is signed by the four Commissioners, Mr. A. Saunders, M.H.R., Sir R. Douglas, Bart., Mr. T. Kelly, M.H.R., ana Mr. C. Pharazyn. The following is appended by Sir Robert Douglas : — " In affixing my signature to this report I must qualify my approval by calling attention to the observations contained in it — 'We are conscious of- having- leffc* some* large aa<i-« important branches of the service altogether " uninvestigated, of having enquired very superficially into others, and of having gone exhaustively into none.' I wish, theretorertlnr report had stopped short of proposals on which the entire reorganisation of the Civil Service, as a whole, are recommended to be based.— R. Douglas."