The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1909. WHEN MINISTERS ARE UNMUZZLED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 600, 31 August 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1909. WHEN MINISTERS ARE UNMUZZLED.

Sir Joseph Ward's colleagues must be feeling rather sorry by now that Messes. M'Gowan .and Hooa wero 'rotired from the Ministry. - These two gentlemen have celebrated their manumission by making' the public,; acquainted with : Bome facts about Ministerial practices that must be as distressing to, their late associates as they are interesting '.to, the general; public. Me. Hoqq told us-, almost immedi-. ately after his resignation that at the vory time when; the Qovernment was doing its best to persuade, the public that thero was no serious congestion in the labour market he—and doubtless other Ministers— were besieged with applicants for work. "He tried," so lie said at lite t ahull a the other day, "to be hopeful and cheerful, but each meeting of Cabinet, filled him with dismal; forebodingsi"' In other .words, Miaintors were wall dtisugb awajfl oi wo trao' position,

but neither their duty to the public nor their humanity weighed with them against their constant anxiety to do nothing to prejudice their hold on the delights of office. When Mr. Hogg told us that tho Native Department is "deaf, ♦dumb, and blind," he told us nothing that we did not know, but ,he did assist us to a better realisation of the full extent of the Hon. J., Carroll's indifference to the needs of the country. Mr. M'Gowan has not been much heard of since he gave up his portfolio, but ho has made up in quality for, what his revelations have lacked in quantity. Indeed, we are disposed to regard his evidence upon political influence, given before the, • Police Commission, as', being more valuable than all of Mr. Hogg's exposures of the Government's methods; of doing business. ;

When Mr. M'Gowan was Minister for Justice, so he told the Commissioner, he was frequently approached by members of Parliament in regard to £hc promotion of the police, "That," he said, "must always take place as long as members of Parliament have constituents." The Commissioner naturally asked Mr. M'Gowah whether he could suggest a remedy, "remembering that this is a Democracy"; and Mr. M'Gowan could only suggest the disfranchisement of the police. This was a remedy, however, which.he would not like to apply. We have discussed this point on several occasions, in the past, and have given our reasons for believing that un-

der the conditions prevailing in New Zealand the disfranchisement of the. State's employees is the simplest safeguard against corrupt practices on the part of tho Government. The process under present conditions is quite simple. The State's employee asks his member to "speak for him" to the Minister, and the member, remembering that tho man . has a vote, and that that vote must bo captured, speaks to the. Minister accordingly. The Minister, anxious' to keep the member "sweet," : and not forgetful of the l fact that a vote or several votes for the' party are concerned, , is. extremely likely to endeavour to do . what is asked of him. But Mr. M'Gowan is not quite correct in saying that this kind of thing will go on "as long as members of Parliament. have It is more correct to say that; it will go on so long as' the member has an, incentive to pull strings and the Minister an incentive to distribute favours to voters. Both those incentives can be almost: completely re : moved if the control of the public services is taken , out of Ministerial hands and placed in the hands of independent persons responsible only to Parliament. There are some members,' of course, who would dislike tho disappearance of one of their most useful vote-catching . machines; and'tho present .Government is notoriously, hostile to any infringement of: what it has grown :to consider its right to use the public services as; its private farm. But the better class of member would ' hail with delight the abolitionVof. a system which is a mean compound of intrigue and chicanery.

We wclcomc Mil. M'Gowan's ver,v useful- contribution to tho case for nonpolitical control of the employing ; and spending departments of government. What' is. true of the . police and promotions is true of every section of the . public service, and of other, favours than appointments and preferments. We did not ; require' Mb.' ; statement of the fact; at Whangarei some, years ago to'inform us that tho allocation of the public jrorks expenditure is • made with, an oye to fortifying the Government in power. The only alterna'tivo to the disfranchisement of the State's employees must be the substitution of . non-political' for political control. Not only would members then be free from-the temptation to abuse their; trust for. the sake of votes at the election; they would even becomn .independent critics of .the management of tho public, services. At present the Ministerialist A is unable to attack a gross job in B's electorate, for B, in most cases, would bo able to retort with a disclosure of some little .job of A's own. All : that would be changed under the system of independent managers responsible, like the Judges of the Supreme Court, to Parliament' itself. Let anybody try to imagine the things that could happen if the Judges were subject to Ministerial control. Of course : Messrs. Hogg and M'Gowan have opened tho eyes of the public only to/a small part of the,'methods of the Government. • Ii Sir' Joseph Ward were to reconstruct his Ministry again, we should doubtless, •lave ' a good many more' interesting :sidelights- upon the way in which the Government does things.' 7