The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1884.

Timaru Herald, Volume XL, Issue 3196, 23 December 1884, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1884.

The Government have rather overdone the proverbial clean sweeping of new brooms, as far as Civil Service reform is concerned ; or rather, they have devoted themselves to that useless sort of sweeping which knocks up a tremendous dust without really cleaning the floor. They have made the mistake of worrying and barrassing the civil servants as a body ; instead of improving the system on which they are appointed and employed, while treating them like gentlemen personally. They have lengthened their hours by half an hour, while giving them half an hour for lunch, which is really no gain to the public at all. The reason given for this change is that the officials took half an hour for lunch before, though it was not allowed, but left punctually at four o'clock; whereas now, the lunch halfhour is recognised, and the offices are kept open till half -past four to make up for it. The truth is that a great many officials never took lunch, or if they did, they took it whenever they had a few minutes to spare m the intervals of business. Some, no doubt, took it as regularly as they could ; but all alike were bound to be m their offices when they were required ; and, as a fact, the business of the public offices was never interrupted m the middle of the day. If one officer of a department went out for a few minutes, another remained to look after his work for him ; and so, on the whole, the convenience both of the public and of the officers was fairly consulted. But now there is to be a complete suspension of business for half an hour m the middle of the day ; an inconvenience which the public certainly will not deem to be compensated by half an hour being added at the end of the day. It may be said, no doubt, that the additional half hour will give so much more time for answering letters, and attending to the routine work of the department, and that thus the interests of the public will be indirectly furthered. Those who know the ways of Government officers and Government officials, however, will not attach much importance to that argument. The truth is, m a thoroughly well administered department all the work that is needed to be done on each day, is done m the day, whether the office closes at four o'clock or at half -past four; whilst m a badly administered department the work will always be behindhand, no matter at what hour tlie office is supposed to close. The test of the value of the additional half hour is this. Will the Government be able to dispense with the services of a single official m consequence of it, without putting the public to inconvenience or otherwise impairing the efficiency of the department ? We do not believe they will ; and if not, then the lengthening of the hours of work is not a reform, but merely a vexatious interference. Then, we learn that the Government have laid down strict rules aB to attendance. Every official is to sign a book, and a quarter of an hour after the opening of the office, the book is removed, and any officer who has not signed it is deemed to have been absent for that day. At the end of the month, the time of each officer is to be counted up, and a deduction m salary is to be made for the aggregate absence. Here again is a worry instead of a reform. The attendance book is no new abomination. It was introduced years ago, by that fussiest of fussy Ministers, the Honorable Mr Reynolds, if we mistake not. But it fell into disuse m most of the best managed departments, because it was found to be more tronble than it was worth. A great deal more time was lost m signing the book, checking the attendance, and counting up the hours and minutes, than would have been lost by an officer being occasionally a few minutes late. And, what was of far moro importance, the whole thing was felt to bo a nuisance and a degradation by the very best class of officers. A lot of faarum-Bcarum clerks did not care a pin about it. If they were late they were late, and at the worst the consequences were not very terrible, only a bit of a breeze from the chief, and a few shillings less "screw" to spend m billiards or neckties at the end of the month. But grave men advanced m years who really took an interest m their work, and whoso duties were not confined to so many hours of mechanical scribbling daily, felt keenly having to sign the book first thing every morning, as if they were not to be trusted. It was an offensive and silly system, and we do not believe anything was ever gained by it, or will be gained by it now that it has been revived. Here again, it is entirely a question of good or bad administration. If the Under-Seorctary and the Chief Clerk nre what they ought to be, punctuality will be the rule of the office, n rule which no member of the staff will ever think of violating without sufficient reason. At the same time, the strictest discipline is quite compatible with the best of feeling ,- and m a properly managed department the maximum of duty would bo cheerfully rendered by every official without any-

one ever feeling himself under restraint. On the other hand, m a de- J partment where there is • a weakminded Under-Secretary and an t incompetent Chief Clerk, all the attend- < ance books and mechanical regulations « m the world will not secure punctual f attendance, but irregularity and disorder will always . prevail, whilst \ every official will be at loggerheads with the others. Some of the ' Ministers, perhaps, have an idea that | by the aid of attendance books, and so . forth, they will be enabled themselves i to exercise personal supervision over what goes on m their departments. There could not be a greater delusion. They might look into such matters for the first month or two ; but they will soon find that they have plenty of more pressing business to attend to, and m any care no good whatever, but only mischief, will result from their exertions. If the Under-Secretaries a - worth their salt, the less the Minister ■ ' interfere with the internal affairs of the departments, the better. If the Under - Secretaries are not worth their salt, — and very likely some of them are not — then the sooner the incompetent ones are sacked, and abler men put m their place the better. But it is simply childish to resort to cast iron regulations which do not enhance the efflciencey of the departments, but cause ill feeling and distrust among the officials. The oddest and the most unreasonable of all these so called reforms, however, remains to be mentioned. On the first of December, the Government issued a circular to s.ll the civil servants forbidding them to attend meetings or take any part m the management of trading companies m which they may happen to be shareholders. A harsher or more unjustifiable interference witli the private affairs of a body of respectable gentlemen could not well be imagined. It was so inequitable as to be positively anomalous. For example, a civil servant might own houses or property of any sort, on his own account, or m partnership with another or otherß, and manage it m his spare time as he pleased. But if he were only one of a large number of shareholders m a business — precisely the same business which he had owned be- 1 fore, let us say — then he was forbidden to attend a meeting of his partners or take any part m the management of his own property, although, perhaps, he was the fittest of them all to do so. What could be more absurd P As a fact, a great many civil servants both at Wellington and m other places, are interested as shareholders m many enterprises, greatly to the advantage of all concerned ; and as far as we have ever heard, no injury to the public service has resulted from their exercising all the rights and privileges of shareholders. In Wellington, this is particularly the case ; and the oppressiveness of the new Regulation was felt so strongly there that the Government have been obliged to give way about it. The Regulation has been withdrawn, and the civil servants are once more placed on a par with other citizens commercially. It is the more wonderful that so strange a restriction should have been attempted to be placed on them by the present Ministry ; because Sir Jnlius Yogel, when he was Agent-General, always stood out stoutly for the right of a pnblic servant to engage m commercial pursuits m his leisure. He himself, indeed, was Chairman of a company, with £1500 a year, and director of several others ; and he actually gave up the Agency-General rather than abandon lucrative private engagements which the Government considered incompatible with the due discharge of that responsible and somewhat delicate position. It may be said that circumstances alter cases and that Sir Julius Yogel m office m New Zealand is quite a different man from Sir Julius Yogel m business m London. We are inclined to think, however, that that is not so, but that these foolish efforts to reform the Civil Service by worrying and insulting the officials are none of Sir Julius Vogel's doings. He probably hus his bauds quite full of other things ; and haß left this sort of work to some new broom with exactly the result that might have been expected.