THE CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENTS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 444, 1 March 1909, Page 6

THE CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENTS

There arc some aspects of the current retirement of tho oldor Civil Service officials which call for observation. Sir Joseph Ward has stated that tho retirement of officials past tho ago of sixty-five is a general policy, which will be carried out without discrimination, and ho assorts that 'this will effect a saving of some thousands of pounds per annum. We are not given, however, any definite ostimate of the numbor of officials who will be affected. It has not yet been suggested, we think, that the Governmont has taken this stop as a beginning of the economy which has been necessitated by tho waste and oxtravagance of tho last dozon yoars of Liberal government, but it is a suggestion that merits consideration. Whether tho wholesale dismissals now current will really save tho country vory much is open to doubt. The younger men who will be promoted to the vacated positions will not at once rcccive tho salary of tho retiring officers: thero will bo a large saving there. But against this economy must bo sot tho cost of the pensions which will forthwith make a heavy drain on the Superannuation Fund. Wanting figures, we cannot make any definite comparison botween tho gain in tho one direction and the loss in the other, but it will be matter for surprise if, in respect of any given post, the initial salary of tho now man is less than his predecessor's by the amount'of the retiring official's pension. Unless it is at lonet that much smaller, there will be no , actual saving to the country at all. .

It would be interesting Jo know, too, what effect the retrenchment policy will have upon the Superannuation Fund. The public lias never been given any really satisfactory evidence of the soundness of the fund, much less any reason to believe that it will not be disturbed by the sudden and heavy drain that is to be made upon it. It is not as if the present abnormal call upon the fund will be balanced by future demands below normal. The future annual toll of retirements, if the policy now begun is to endure permanently, will all be normal ones. There will be nothing to balance the effects of the dismissals now taking place. It is very unfortunate that there should have to be a fixed retiring-age. Amongst the officials now being retired, there arc many who arc fully competent to discharge their duties for years to come, some whose present energy and ability cannot be bettered by their successors. If a system of honest discrimination could lie instituted, under which unfitness for. office, and not grey hairs, would be the signal for retirement, efficiency and economy would both be served, while the complaint of the younger men about the greybeard in the way could not have any hearing in a service thus based on the recognition of merit. But the country could not possibly trust Ministers with these powers of discrimination. If the service were removed from the reach of political control, matters would be different. We might then ho able to retain the useful men, and dismiss those not worth retaining, when the age-limit was reached.