REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO INQUIRE AND REPORT UPON THE CIVIL SERVICE OF NEW ZEALAND

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 508, 6 July 1880, Page 2

REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO INQUIRE AND REPORT UPON THE CIVIL SERVICE OF NEW ZEALAND

(Ctntimd.) '■ - - At'the'same'time'the.palpable engineering mistakes that are made,, thefevident inattention to common well-known re: quirements, and the want of adaptation of stereotyped plans to varying icircum"stances, have given us a strong impression that.this costly staff, is made to effect very little profitable result, Too often we have noticed in the engineers employed,' a" feeling of indifference as to the result of | their work, and almost a sullen obedience 1 to orders believed by them to be! absurd. The strict formal separation of the two engineering departments is as inconvenient as it is costly. The isolation is so complete that each regards the .other as an alien rather than jan ally, and; there is no evidence, and apparently no possibility, of; a friendly co-operation'for the general good. ;

• Arailway line that has been passed byi a Public Works' engineer must be accepted by the' officers taking charge of it as fit for. traffic, although they may be able to demonstrate that there is no ballast: utidsr the sleepers, no way provided for storm-water, or that the curves and gra- ; dientaare of & character that must be immediately altered. j ..... iWithi such aii immense force j of engi-. neering skill in the service of the colony, it might be supposed that at (least- an intelligent: selection be. .made ;'6f our native .timber for -bridges, sleepers, and.other,purposes. , Upon this 1 we find 'that'-the contradictory opinions are heldj'leading to the use in one district of 'i. timbw; itrorigly>7 condemned | for the sime > purpose in another, i and unfortujqiitely, v ,;airection lewt conducive ;to economy. Even in th* fow. iutaasM

in which locally-grown timber ii tiled,: iti price is often mada niuph=liigher'than it need be by in«i«tii]f?;ion itiideliyeiy-;iD; tho winter, when it is alnfost .iinptisHidle; to get it out of tha 'juah. "Kauri, which' iB plentiful in Auckland, lias' been 1 found to be quite useless for piles in'salt water, and totura, which is comparatively scarce, ii now used; while in Napier,. where no "pi en tif ut "al of ge*~ bridge * across" tKe" "Hair-" bour, costing more than £12,000, is being built with piles of imported kauri, though • jt.js.well-known that., the.latter-timber: is. soon destroyed by the teredo in salt .water, On the Auckland lines puriri, which is admitted;to be the best wood,"inj New Zealand for.sleepors, and is readily obtainable, is neglected, while kauri, which cannot be compared with it for; durability, is used. , In these, perhaps more than in any other branches of the Government service, the mischief of dividing departments and multiplying heads is apparent, as, besides the waste of energy and money thai is caused by it, the bad effect of clashing opinions and instructions may everywhere be seen. .It is clearly one of those cases in which " one bad general, would be better than two good ones," and in which it. would be far easier for one head to control the whole than for each separate head to be called on at every inportani step to meet the 7 , opposing opinions of what is really a rival department.

CROWN lANDS DEPARTMENT. /. : Since the abolition of provinces the control of this department has been vested in the Minister of Lands, with n 1 Secretary, Under-Secretary* and clerks in the central office, and a Waste Lands Board, Commissioner, and staff in each of the provincial land districts, of which there are ten. The Land Act in force is appiicable to tho whole colony ;bnt em. bodied in it are portions of the old provincial enactments, which are made applicable in each district. The result of this is, that on many of the more important details there are as many land laws as there are land districts. This fact has greatly increased the difficulty we have found in arriving at a sound conclusion on many points. In order to enable ourselves to do this we have not only taken a large amount of evidence, but have personally inspected, so far as time would permit, some portions of the colony. Both evidence and inspection convince us ihat the amount of land in the hands of the Crown, which is likely to sell within the next few . years is very small as com-; pared with the large sales effected in the past. This being the case, and finding the staff employed about, the same as, and: in some cases even larger than, it formerly was, it appeared at first sight that with less work to do a reduction in cost of the department would be possible. On examination, however,, we found that, though the lands and amounts received are so much less, the work to be done has not materially decreased.- This arises to a great extent from,the fact that sales hare been made on terms which involve periodical collection of small amounts from the purchasers, as well as the hecesiary supervision to enforce the conditions agreed on. This being the. cafce, .'we cannot at present satisfy our-: selves that any niaterial rediiction in Staff can be effected, though it is possible that some saving maybe nude by amalgamation of offices.

The evidence shows that, in conse "quepce of want of proper precautions having, been taken,, orders hare been given, in seme cases by the boards and in others by the Crown .Lands Department, to prepare for salt blocks of land which, from their character, and unfit for the purposes intended, and have therefore necessarily proved unsaleable, The result of this has been a very large waste of money, as we shall show more clearly when dealing with the surveys. This does not merely apply to the past, as we find the tame wasteful expenditure going on in preparing blocks for sale where the land is of auch % character that the result cannot fail to be most junsatisfaotory.! *Ve would strongly urge the necessity for putting a stop to this, and recommend that before any block of land is dealt with the government should be satisfied that it is fully suitable for the purposes to which it is intended to be put. Under no ciroumstances should money be spent on seotional surveys' until thia is done. There appears to be a, great want of definition as to. responsibility between the Government, the Boards, and the Survey department ;uo that when such mistakes are. made as we • have pointed out, it is difficult, if not , impossible, to say with whom the responsibility rests! The Boards' appear to act at times on the information and opinions ,of their owti members, at others on the reports 'of .Chief Surveyors, and in some instances on the evidence of some irresponsible persons,' which there is reason to believe is too often far from unprejudiced. ! , The. Chief Suryeyora have no. sufficiently. definite, instructions as to. their . with the' Boards, and either do ■not consider the mselves bound to make •reports: to them, or do,not feel responsible for the opinions they give.. We are of opinion that these offibers should'be held strictly responsible to the head of their own department, and should fee} that they cannot relieve themselves of this responsibility except by reporting their opinion to him. Practic 1 recognition of the importance: of defining the position and responsibility. of each branch; of the department will, we believe, result in avoiding the. recurrence ; .of. the . errors of the l paatj andthis will undoubtedly tend so to lessen the work as to make a reduction in tie staff employed, practicable. > The appointment of Receivers of Land Revenue, who in some instances ' have their offices at a considerable: distance from those of the Commissioners, we find results in increased work to the .depart; nient, and in lonie incbiivenienoe to thi public, every purchaser having to visit ■the two offices before he can complete# transaction. difficulty 'is often Bur| raceived in the Commissioner's office and then handed over in one sum to the Re' ceiver. We .can see no reason .why such accumulated funds should-not be paid.by: the Commissioner directly into the bank. A system which leads in practice to this ey.asion of the strict letter of the law cannot, we submit, be a good one, and, as it certainly increases the. total amount of work to be done, we believe some saving would be effected by discontinuing it; j . We have taken some ' evidence on the question as to whether it is -necessary to r continue to issue Crown grants as well ascertificates of title under the find Transfer Act. Several witnesses to whose opinions ;we;attaoh much, weight' : say no real advantage, is ; gained by having; two documents, This, however," being, rather a question for the Law ■ Officers of the Crown than for us to decide, wo simply allude to it as a matter worth careful consideration!> ;

BUBVET DEPiRXMBSI.. j Thii-haa'alwaya-been "a ''very costly branch, of .the' Government Bervice, ;j{n: ■yolving foi regarded''-fM: 1 ascientific 1 a'nd' ; td6hnical rather than a practical point of view, it» left.almoat uncontrolled ;in the hands'of spVciaiisUiT^We f ireKifet'to liaVe'lifstati that,we hate formed a low opinioh of'the real utility of a large proportion'of, the work done. 1 , 1 J 11 "">> '• 1 In 1 whatewr} direction' we' have'",m r quired, ; we,haVefound'evideiice 'of serious waetfc' of *. money in making sectional

surveysof land which ii of such a charao t« as to preclude the idea of iti being r»quir«d for wttlement in the, sizes of holdings into, which it is arbitrarily out up, The extend to which this has been done is almost incredible, excepfto those who know: from experience how it is poiii* ble for a department to act on a theereti* c*l system without considering the:- practical conditions Jnvolved..->EMm^^ taken, haa Mrivincejiui thata larteVaste of public money has Been incuir*d in this direction. :-:-

Blocks have been uselessly qut up into numbers of -.small sections. This has been the fact that either-no sales have been effected, or they have been so small as not even to cover the cost; of survey, which has |n large nunibw of cases been from' Is 6d to 2s 6d per acre. The evil has not, however, been confined to the mere waste of money. The. result of laying off sections without regard to the nature and configuration ot the land has been that large blocks of land are rendered unsaleable, and are often held without charge by the men who have been shrewd enough to secure the few which foriny as it, were, the key to the rest. This has tended to encourage that monopoly which it has been the desire of the Legislature to avoid, while it has largely incre»sed ! the expense of survey. . .'■) \ (Tohcontinued}) /;