The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesday, May 2nd, 1911. AN EVIL SYSTEM.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 5707, 2 May 1911, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail . Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesday, May 2nd, 1911. AN EVIL SYSTEM.

One of the Government’s chief defenders has described as an 11 evil system ” the present regime, under which Ministers of the Crown feel impelled to concern themselves with all manner of petty affairs (which are more a fatigue for the body than the mind, because many of the tasks have nothing much to do with mind). The Government’s strongest supporter in the South Island, the Lyttelton Times, has hastened to defend the solicitude of Ministers about little things, and practically contends that the democracy holds the Government “ personally accountable for the management of every detail of the public affairs,” and the inference is that Ministers are obliged by the public to waste their time on trifles. This is (says the Post) equivalent to declaring that because an editor of a large newspaper is held personally accountable for every item that appears in his columns (including the smallest advertisements), he should laboriously wade through every line of copy and leave nothing to the judgment of his subordinates. Or it is on a par with the scrupulousness of the architect of a great cathedral in worrying whether the stonemasons should have white, brown, or blue aprons. “We may yet be forced to say,” concludes the Times, “ that eight Cabinet Ministers cannot accomplish all the work we assign to them.” What is this “ work ” ? Much of it is purely social, purely political, or a blend of social and political (the usual combination). New Zealand cannot afford to pay large salaries to eight men for ornamental purposes at sooial functions, and then appoint further men for useful work because the others are worn out with political social activities. This country is already carrying too much top-hamper. If a Minister was intelligently keen on the real solid business of a large department he would be worth muoh more than the salary now allotted him, but we see no general systematic devotion to non-political work. We could name exceptions, but they are exceptions. The pilgrims are more concerned with devotions at political parochial shrines than with the serious work of administering their departments on striot business lines.