THE UNDERSECRETARY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1365, 16 February 1912, Page 2

THE UNDERSECRETARY

Sir,—Your correspondent "Progress," having set out with »ini good ideas and actuated doubtless with ilio best intentions, became, l.thiuk, somewhat mixed in drawing liis conclusions. There, may be oilier fields from which the llepartincntnl Under-Secretary could be with advantage chosen, but 1 think ".Progress" can hardly bu taken bcriously when lie suggests the agricultural show as the recruiting ground for the development, of the efficient liind administrator. While I am prepared to admit that probably any haphazard method, even such as that iujjgeatcd, could not have had worse resuits that ihose which have been attained in the past; with eonsideralbe knowledge of the subject 1 can assert with some confidence that there is plenty of good material in the Civil Service to fill all (ho important positions. The pity of it is that it is the mode of selection that is so utterly wrong and indefensible.

The present type of bepiirt men till head is begotten by a. system in which the dominating factor is ell'luxioii of time. Instead of it being the selection of the fittest, the question of fitness for the office is never taken into account. Length of service is the only tiling considered. There is the whole thing in a nutshell. No method of selection could givp worse results. Is it any wonder that your correspondent "Progress" can so easily put his finger on some of the Rip Van Winkles of Hie Service? He evidently knows some of their haunts, and is very apt when he describes the said "Rips" as being imbued with a- spirit of "sublime composure." "Sublime composure" is decidedly good, this typo is closely related to "masterly inactivity," and is twin-sister of the highly developed "taihoa"—all lineal descendants of complacency out of efl'liixion of time. Seriously, ■ sir, if the political change now pending has :no other result than to put tho Civil Service on a sound business basis it will have been well worth all the battling.—l am, etc.. VIXDEX.