Recruiting the Public Service.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20496, 15 March 1932, Page 8

Recruiting the Public Service.

The Minister for Education, according to a message from Wellington printed this morning, has decided that, as there are more than enough candidates for the Public Service who have passed matriculation, the present Public Service examination will be replaced by one of the same standard as matriculation but with a wider range of subjects. The change is welcome as a sign that the educational standard of the Public Service is improving, but there is still room for a considerable improvement in the system of recruiting, particularly where the higher grades are concerned. It is a curious anomaly that, although the British Government is offering administrative posts in its Colonial Civil Service to New Zealand University graduates, the New Zealand Government makes no attempt to recruit public servants from the same source, except in the case of the professional division. The Public Service Act, indeed, discourages any such policy, for it provides that appointments to the administrative division shall " as far as practicable " be made from tho higher grades of the professional or clerical divisions, the consequence being that in New Zealand the higher officials are almost invariably specialists with professional training. In England the opposite principle is followed; the high official is chosen for general administrative ability rather than for expert knowledge, and the administrative division is recruited largely from -University trained men (and women) by a special competitive examination. This policy has been an important factor in making the English Civil Service the best in the world, and the present tendency is to extend rather than to curtail it. The evidence given before the recent Royal Commission on Local Government in England showed that the larger local bodies, who are in most cases compelled by law to put at the head of their departments men with professional qualifications, were in favour of placing more emphasis on administrative ability. New Zealand's Public Service would benefit! greatly by a reform on the same lines. There is no reason why the administrative division should not continue to be recruited from the higher grades of the clerical and professional divisions, but - there ought also to be some openings in it for the best type of University graduate, and a recognised method of entrance.