OUT WITH THEM!

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1209, 18 August 1911, Page 3

OUT WITH THEM!

•Sir,—Outside Parliament there appears to be general sympathy with the main principle of Mr. Herdnian's Civil Service Bill, which is to take the control of the service out of the hands of the Government. of the day. It is not good for the country that any Government should havo so much patronage to dispense. Everybody knows that the privilege has been much abused. Some Ministers havo gone the length of appointing their relatives to lucrative posts, and most Ministers have not hesitated to give billets to many of their friends and supporters. Such a condition of things is unknown in tho, Old Country. But the chief complaint is that the work of the Departments might usually be'done by half the number of persons employed. This is vouched for by honourable past and present Civil Servant?*. , The answer of Ministers is that Government havo found it necessary to employ necessitous persons in the Department.s Surely it was never contemplated by Parliament that, tho Departments should be so many asylums for the starving poor, nor for the deaf, lame, and blind, nor for persons suffering from other chronic ailments. It is astonishing hoV soon many of (.he people who enter the service are afflicted with some malady, and are away from'their work for weeks yr months, their pay going on nil the while. . No doubt if the pay were stopped (here would be less illness, and probably if the Chief Health Officer were sent to examine each patient there would be very few on the sick-list at any time. Than* is, iw.Mr. Hcrdman. says, much discontent, in' the.service., , Educated and capable servants are' aggrieved becauso persons of little education' aro brought in am! given, positions over them. Some of the servants in receipt of from .£'2oo to i£soo a year could not pass the Fourth Standard examination of the elementary schools, "and in some eases their habits and manners are about as low as their education. Surely there ought to he an educational test. No applicant should bo appointed who has been too lazy to acquire as much useful knowledge as is possessed by the children of the liighest standard in the elementary schools. Then, again, there is muchr disconteut in the service because the salaries of favourites are regularly advanced, while those of many deserving men remain stationary. I believe almost every head of a Department advances his own salary annually, mid in some cases all. or almost nil, the members of the staff are overlooked. A ■ moro just and happier state of. things ■ 'would-Isurely- • prevail • tinder a board of!honourable business 'men. But the question for the manual labourers in town and country is; Are you content to keep in office a Government that saddles you with the cost of'-'maintaining an army of unnecessary servants in the Do partments, who would be much better employed on tlie land?'

But for land monopoly, there would be few, if any. necessitous persons applying to Ministers for employment in State Departments. And Government is responsible for that monopoly. This Administration has been in office nearly 20 years—a long enough period to satisfy tho land hunger of the people, and give equality of opportunity. But in all the town districts land monopoly is now more severe in its pressure upon the workers than at any former time, increasing tho cost of living, and making it much harder for them to. get. a .living. Therefore, I say—Out-with this Government! ,1 have much .more to say, and shall'not have done with" the Ward Ministry until the voting begins.—l am,'etc.,' , EDWARD Ti EVANS. August H, 1011.