The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 6000 Weekly. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1903.

Waikato Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1558, 16 May 1903, Page 2

The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 6000 Weekly. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1903.

Almost simultaneously with the introduction of legislation in Victoria to meet a strike on the part of a section of Government employees in the persons of the engine-drivers and stokers, a movement is on foot in Wellington amongst the labour organisations, agitating that those employed in the Government service shall have liberty to actively engage in general or local politics. A petition is circulating among the various labour organisations for presentation to Parliament next session, praying that employees of the State shall have the same political and civil rights as employees of private individuals. Those who sign this petition will show that they are utterly ignorant of the relations which should prevail between the Government and those who serve it. As individuals, so long as the Civil servants vote on the general roll they are, of course, entitled to support any candidate who presents himself for election for the district in which they reside. The permanent staffs of the different Departments are in the same position as is their head, who is where he is in order that he may carry out the policy laid down by the responsible Ministers. This applies all through the service down to the latest-appointed messenger boy in a telegraph office. Manifestly, this being the case, it is improper for Civil servants to take an active part in politics, whether for or against the Government of the day. We believe it would be better if the names of all Government servants were placed on a separate roll and they granted the privilege of returning members proportionate to their numbers. Every man who values the liberty which Parliament confers upon him will he glad to learn that the railway servants of Victoria have surrendered unconditionally, and that the people of the Empire who value the privileges which Parliamentary institutions confer upon them resent the alliance of a large body of the servants of a Government with such a body as the Trades Hall.