THE PUBLIC SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22520, 30 September 1938, Page 12

THE PUBLIC SERVICE

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATES COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY APPOINTED WIDE ORDER OF REFERENCE * [THE PRESS Special Service.! WELLINGTON, September 29. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) announced to-day that he had appointed a committee to investigate and report on the question of making greater use of university graduates in the public service of the Dominion. The members of the committee are Professor T. A. Hunter, Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand; Mr Harold G. Miller, librarian at' Victoria University College; Mr H. H. Cornish, So-licitor-General; Mr N. T. Lambourne, Director of Education; Mr B. C. Ashwin, Assistant-Secretary to the Treasury; Mr T. Mark, one of the Public Service Commissioners; Miss Irene Wilson, principal of Queen Margaret College; Miss A. C. Affleck, of the Public Service Commissioners' office; Mr M. McG. Cooper, representing the New Zealand University Students' Association; Mr E. Casey, representing the Railways Department (or in his absence Mr Urquhart); Mr G. McNamara, Post and Telegraph, Department; Mr J. W. Heenan, Under-Sec-retary of the Department of Internal Affairs; Mr J. H. McKenzie, secretary of the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association; Mr V. J. Stanley, general secretary of the New Zealand Railway Officers' Institute; and Mr W. Stewart, Valuer-General, representing the New Zealand Public Service Association.

The questions upon which the committee is to report appear in the following order of reference: — (1) Whether, in the public interest, the public service as a whole can be improved and strengthened by the employment of a greater number of university graduates. (2) What scope exists at present throughout the public service generally for the employment of graduates, particularly those with special educational attainments and training? Pay and Conditions (3) What avenues (if any) not now open in the public service to university graduates with special skill, training, or knowledge could be made so open, with advantage to the public? _ ! (4) What avenues (if any) not now open in the public service to university graduates without special skill, training, or knowledge could be made so open with advantage to the public? . . w .- ■ (5) Do the conditions governing the appointment and payment Of officers in the public service encourage university graduates to enter? If not, by what methods can these conditions be improved? -.-. (6) Do the existing provisions for promotion of and consequential increase of salary to officers of the public service encourage university graduates to remain in it? " (7) What amendments (if any) to the existing legislation are necessary in the public interest: (a) to facilitate the entry of graduates to the public service; (b) to facilitate the promotion of graduates after entry to the public service; (c) to protect the interests of officers already in the service, whether graduates or not? - (8) To suggest any improvements which in the public interest may be considered desirable or necessary as regards: (a) the university training of students desiring to enter the public service (including the planning of a suitable course of study); (b) the post-graduate university training of officers already in the public service; (c) any relevant matters arising indirectly under any heading in this order of reference.

the railways were already doing_ in the way of economising, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes wrote to the Minister for Railways thit "drastic steps must be taken to make further substantial reduction in railway expenditure, and I shall be glad if you will treat the matter as one of urgency." -.,,«.«. -j Thus it came about, Mr Sullivan said, that the general manager reported to the Railways Board in September, 1931, mentioning specifically savings to be obtained "by postponement of maintenance work where this is possible, elimination of betterment expenditure, and reduction of maintenance gangs on secondary lines." In January, 1932, instructions -were issued to officers to prepare estimates of expenditure for the year ending March 31, 1933, "based on the assumption that the most rigid economy must be exercised throughout the financial year." "An Economy Committee" "It is apparent at this stage that even the board realised the dangerous point to which economy was being exercised, because the chairman told the board in February, 1932, that the board constituted in effect an 'economy committee'," the Minister said. "In the financial year ended March :31, 1933, the board decreased expenditure by £486,096 and reported that the 'satisfactory result on the expenditure side was achieved by the statutory reductions in salaries and wages and by a systematic and careful pursuit of every practical means of erionomy,* and that 'the improvement in the net results achieved over the last two years has been secured chiefly by the reductions which have been obtained in the expenditure.' *. . * "Need more be said to confirm my statement," included the Minister. The fact was, he said, ihat the railways were neglected as a service and the transport system of the Dominion had become chaotic, notwithstanding the existence of the necessary legislation to control the position. Under such a policy it was inevitable that railway maintenance would suffer. This could be clearly indicated by the fact that in 1931 the total man-hours on this work was 4,239,343 and during the last two years this had increased to 5.206,128—an increase of 33 per cent. The number of men employed on the work increased from 1893 to 2395—an increase of 26 per cent.