HOLMES CASE AND ITS BEARING ON CONTROL OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Wanganui Chronicle, 19 August 1950, Page 6

HOLMES CASE AND ITS BEARING ON CONTROL OF PUBLIC SERVICE

WELLINGTON, Yesterday (PAL— The Public Service Commission, in its report tabled in the House of Representatives today, reviews at some length the case of Cecil Holmes, who was dismissed from the National Film Studios after taking part in a stopwork meeting following a commission warning that anyone so ceasing duty w-ould be liable to dismissal. The report, discussing the matter under the heading, “The Holmes Case: Probation,’’ says the action taken was not because of the employee’s membership of the Communist Party and was not related to his political views. He was not regarded as a suitable person for employment in the public service, notwithstanding his admitted technical competence in his work. The report recalls that the Appeal Court found that Holmes was not *- probationer, his appointment as a permanent officer having been inferentially confirmed and that, this being so, he had not been properly dismissed. “For the good administration of the Public Service the one unfortunate result of the decision is that it removes the clearness of distinction hitherto understood to exist, and it is important beween the status of a probationer and the status of a permanent officer. The commission recommends that legislation be passed requiring that probation be confirmed explicity, not by Inference.” The commission’s report reviewing the’past year in the public service says it was one of continuing difficulties and limitations—a shortage of essential staff relative to the expanded tasks of the Government’s administration, a still excessive number of separate departments, a poor, inadequate and temporary office accommodation, which would be corrected only by putting up new buildings in several centres, and housing difficulties, which made it unreasonably difficult for officers to put their best into their work and stopped good officers from accept, ing transfers, even on promotion.

tl had been gratifying and not surprising to anyone familiar with the public service that departmental and administrative problems involved in the change of Government following the general election were satisfactorily met. “In line with now well-estab-lished tradition, the new Government, without a single exception to our knowledge, took over and continued to use the services of all officials who were serving under the preceding Government. The disinterested, impartial co-operation that was to be expected of the public Service has been given, and both the new administration and the outgoing one has been generous in appreciation of the good and loyal work of the service.”