CIVIL SERVICE PLUMPING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16769, 19 June 1920, Page 2

CIVIL SERVICE PLUMPING.

A NOVEL SUGGESTION,

OWN MEMBERS OE PARLIAMENT. An alteration in the franchise of public servants to prevent combination on their part for the purpose of exercising tue balance of power in any electorate was advocated oy Mr. Henry Brown, of Inglewood, m tne course of his speecn at the social held on Friday night in honour of the late Reform member for the Stratford electorate. He prefaced Ins remarks by saying he wished to speak of something which the electors in that district and all through Aew Zealand should unto to heart. It had been commonly reported —and, so far as he could judge, truthfully—that there had been combination at both election and by-election by public servants to deieat the Government candidate. Thirty or forty years •ago the Maoris voted with, the ituropeans at Parliamentary elections, and it was found, that the Maoris could turn tlio balance in many electorates in wmehever way they could be induced to vote. This opened the door to a great deal of bribery and corruption, x'arliament decided that this must slop and determined unit the Maoris should be entitled to return tour members or tlieir own.

Mr. Brown said he thought it would be necessary to work in the same direct tion in connection with the civil service. it was very evident that where public servants, as they were called, could combine, they could in a great many electorates turn the scale in favour of that party which they had determined to support. Of course he acknowledged that every man and woman had a right to vote as he or she thought fit, but when a set of people combined like that it looked very like what took place 40 years ago with the Maoris.

The remedy Mr. Brown advocated was to prevent public servants voting in the ordinary manner in the electorates in which they resided and allow them to vote for members of their own —as many as their numbers entitled them to. Some people would say it would be a great hardship to deprive them of their vote in this way, but they , would enter the service with the knowledge that they could not vote in tile electorates in which they resided. “We call them public servants,” Mr. Brown averredj “if you don’t take care the public servants will be your masters.'’ There were a great many persons in the pay of the Government, and if they were able to combine they would be able to practically rule the Dominion. What he had suggested was the only means he could see of overcoming the difficulty.