The Star. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1909. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9509, 5 April 1909, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1909. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

It is only natural that the Opposition should be taking all- the credit for the Government's proposals for reform in the Civil Service. It has for years claimed that the progressive legislation which the Liberal administration has placed upon the Statute Book was all inspired froni its benches, and it could hardly b;e oipected-to allow an opportunity such as that which the Prime Minister has created to go unexploited. The one suggestion is quite as untenable as the other. Sir Joseph Ward has simply been obeying' a mandate from the country in thoroughly revising the various ' Government departments.. He himself promised some time ago that there should be a complete revision, and prior to the general election in November the demand for a speedy fulfilment of this promise was being emphatically made 'throughout the length and breadth of the country by the members of his own party. The Prime Minister has brought down his scheme of retrenchment at the earliest opportunity, and it will be given effect to as quickly as possible. Members of Parliament will have plenty of time to study its details before the House meets, and it is quite possible that some modifications will yet be necessary before it can be put into proper and effective working. In the meantime Sir Joseph is to be congratulated *upon having taken the earliest opportunity to giare effect to the wish of the country as expressed at the polls. The retrenchment scheme is not in any sense a confession of weakness or of past extravagance. It is simply the inevitable pruning of departments which -have been added to the Governmental garden, and which have grown unduly in a period of prosperity. Many of the new departments created by the Liberal Administration were purely of an experimental nature, and it was inevit- -j able that the time would come when by judicious amalgamation the expenses j of the machinery attached to them could be materially lessened. Exactly the same thing occurs regularly in the ( business World, and the application , of the principle of amalgamation to the administration* oi the Civil Service is not only desirable, but imperatiye> The, reduction in -the_ number of depart- , inents will occasion a little hardship among those-whom it is found necessary to dispense with, but that is a corollary to every " movement of the ' sort, and the State cannot afford to j keep pensioners until they fill the statutory requirements. Instead of having his task made harder by hostile criticism, the Prime Minister should have the heartiest assistance of the House in his whole-hearted endeavour to make his retrenchment scheme as effective as possible without imperilling the efficiency of the departments and without inflicting more personal hardship than is necessary. The country has expressed its confidence in the Government so recently that the Prime Minister may take it for granted that it will approve of his latest economy.. That approval should find a very complete echo in the Hou»«- ■ \ •