Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. MONDAY, MAY 10, 1886. Sir Julius Vogel on the Civil Service.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1830, 10 May 1886, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. MONDAY, MAY 10, 1886. Sir Julius Vogel on the Civil Service.

In hie recent speech at Wellington, Sir Julias Vogel altogether scouted the idea of reducing the cost of the Civil Service as being practically impossible of realisation. He con. tended " that our Civil Service would compare favourably with those of other colonies, and other countries in a like condition. Our high officers received very low salaries com* pared with what they would get in position of equal responsibility in private 1 establishments, while the officers in the lower grade bad very slow means of rising. The statement that the service was over manned was answered by the fact that the Governmeet were continually compelled to employ large numbers of temporary officers, and from every part of the colony came the ory> “ give us another officer here ; ” or “ give ns another officer there.’’ The idea that classification would make the service cheaper was absurd. It would add to;the expenditure, because it would give officers greater certainty of increased salaries than they were likely to have with the Legislature continually calling for retrenchment.” Some of the foregoing assertions are very misleading. It is not the case “ that the high officers in the Civil Service receive very low salaries compared with what they would get in positions of equal responsibility in private establishments.” Here are some hard facts on the subject. For many years past the Civil Service has contained a number of highly paid officers called “ commissioners.” There are various kinds of those officers, viz., commissioners of Crown Lands, commissioners of Native Reserves, commissioners of Gold Fields, and of a variety of other things. Well, nearly every one of those officers gets a salary and travelling allowances, varying from £SOO to £7OO a year. In almost every instance the gentlemen lucky enough to be made commissioners have owed their appointments solely to political interest, while the question of their being properly qualified to perform the duties of the position has never been considered at all. As a general rule, a “ commissioner ’’ of any sort has little or nothing to do. Such work as there may be is of the simplest and easiest kind. He has to open and read a lew letters daily and note a few words on a slip of paper as to the replies. His clerk then writes out the replies in lull official form, and the commissioner appends his signature. Then the commissioner may have to see and talk to a few visitors, and that nearly exhausts the daily routine of his so-called work. Whatever real work there may be to do in the office is done by the chief clerk and his assistants. We, once knew a most estimable gentleman who' held the office of “ commissioner cf We purposely do not name the department, but the case is a real one. He came to his office each day at 10.30; read half a dozen letters, handed them to his clerk, and then took a smoke and read the newspaper for an hour. By that time the clerk handed him the written out replies and he signed them. Probably one or two people dropped in, partly on business and partly to gossip. This brought the time to 1.30, when the exhausted commissioner went home to luncheon, and did not return till 3 o’clock. There might be one or two more letters to read and to sign the replies thereto, which brought four o’clock round pleasantly, and then the day’s work was done. This gentleman got £6OO a year of salary, and drew it for 'a good many years. There was not the slightest necessity for the existence of this commissionership. The office could be attached to the head of another branch of the same department. Ibis was aetually done at last, but not before the £6OO a year bad been heedlessly paid to various holders of the] commissionership for some thirty years. That made £]B,OQO of public money simply thrown away. there are scores of similar billets in this colony, the holders of which “ have little to do and plenty to get.” Perhaps not more than two or three of the highly paid gentlemen who hold such offices would be able, in private establishments, to earn more than £.3 pr £3 10s a week as ordinarv clerks. A large ssv|ng ci.ild bo effected'in the cost of the Civil ServioM, if p lot of those highly paid and useless billets were abolished altogether. In most of these Government departments the gentlemen at the head of affairs does little or nothing, the chief clerk sod his assistants being the real workers. These “ ornamental heads of departments ” could with much advantage bp abolished, and the colony saved the cost of their salaries.

The truth is that the whole system of the Civil Service requires radical alteration and reconstruction. The system of transacting official business is slow, cumbrous, and circumlocutory. If each Government department were conducted on the same system as a bank, or large house of business, the work could be done with less than ;half the present number of officers. Most of the present Civil Servants Ju the rank aud file are not highly paid, bat then tb.ere ate far too many of them. Yet we almost despair c| seeing a thorough system of reform carried oat in this matter. No Ministry has earnestly and honestly tried to reform the Civil Service and reduce its cost. Ministers love to txerc ; se the power of patronage by appointing their friends to good billets; while members o‘ Parliament regard the Service as a convenient means for providing son pf their needy electioneering supporters with plaoej position and pay. We are not surprised to find Sir Julius Vogel il u ‘)2ethcr opposed to any one reforming the Civil Service. as the present system exists it affords him Lr means pi perpetrating a few minor jobs, and foisting his protegees into positions in which they will live at the expense pf the cpjony and do very little la return.