NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1551, 21 September 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

An item of interest in the English papers to hand this week is the fact that the Royul Assent has been given to the Act to provide for the organisation and discipline of the Public Service of the Union of South Africa, Tho Act takes the Civil Service out of the hands of the Administration and vests it in a Public Service Commission of three members, who will control the appointment, promotion, discipline, retirement and superannuation of Public Sorvants. In its general outline the Act is very similar to Mil. Heudman's Bill, and it was rendered necessary by abuses just like those which rendered Mn. Herdjian's Bill necessary. We have quoted before now, and may quote again, tho reasons given a year or two ago by the ETon. It. H. Bland, in his book The Union of South Africa, as to the necessity that ths Union Parliament should "faeq at once" the question of the Public Service:

In the eyes of a large section of tho Dutch a Government is not worthy unless it can make appointments of its own free will and find posts for its friends and supporters. The question, is of tho utmost importance. Tho pernicious "Spoils system" is ruinous to any couniry. . . . A 6ound law protecting the Government from itself will bs required if the high traditions of British Ciril Services throughout the world are to bo maintained.

We may ask the so-called "Liberals" on the Speaker's left in our own House of Representatives, to note what is said in the Manchester Guardian, the greatest Liberal organ in the world and one of the three or four finest newspapers in the world, about the South African Act for taking tho control of the Public Service out of the hands of the Ministry. It can be said here with perfect pertinence. Here it is:— Considered as a whole the Act eeems to make every necessary provision against favouritism and hardship, and it is difficult to understand why any of the principles upon which, it is modelled should have eioited so much controversy.

The rebuke administered by "Fairplay" in our news columns this morning to those people who are so ready to go ont of 'their way to insult and deride officers of the Defence Forces is well deserved. There is a tendency perhaps to unduly ignore the wild' and offensive diatribes of the anti-Militarists reflecting on the officers engaged in the task of placing our defences on a satisfactory footing. This is duo no doubt to the extreme ignorance displayed and the absurd distortion practised by those who indulge in such attacks. They,are so grossly and obviously unjust that they carry their own refutation. But it is asking too much to expect those who are subjected to these insulting references to always endure them with the philosophic calm of the onlooker. It is very easy to suggest that these attacks are beneath contempt and unworthy of notice, but one is sorely tempted at times to give the maligners the trouncing they richly deserve, and "Fairplay's" little outbreak is by no means out of place on the present occasion.

The good people of Nelson are, we have little doubt, watehing pretty closely the course that is being steered by their member. They must have seen sufficient of him by now to realise that he is nothing but a steady, if ineffective, vote against the political reform which even he will not deny he was elected to support, whatever he may say of his freedom to oppose the Massey Government. Sooner, or later, however, Mr. Atmobe was bound to get into difficulties. He did so on Thursday evening when the Public Servico Bill was under discussion. He was against the Bill, and Mn. Herdman reminded him of hie pnst support of it. Mr. Atmore did not deny that he had favoured the idea, and he gave this very remarkable defence of his present .opposition to it:

The. Minister had failed to substantiate his veiled charges of political patronage. Hβ was quite' proparod to admit that a year ago lie had believed that there' was a good deal of political patronage, but members of the present Government had not proved the charges which they had made when in Opposition.

The charges of political patronage have been often enough proved. But the point for Nelson people and for Mr. Atiiore is, this: that ho secured election by voicing his belief in the undesirableness of the old Spoils party's methods. If he finds it convenient to pretend that he has changed his ideas, what should he do? Surely it is obvious that, instead of voting against the new Government, he should resign the seat for which ho was, as his argument implies, so wrongfully elected, and get back, if he can, by the votes of the friends of the old Spoils rdnime, If he is so scrupulous about his mistake, he should be scrupulous enough to cease to hold his seat and his £300 a year by the votes of the people who elected him because he professed opinions he now says ho ought not to have professed.

If Mr. G. W. Russell imagines that he is going to do any good for himself or his party by attempting to make capital out of the action of the Government in insisting on the preservation of law and order, he is adding another to the blunders his party has made during the present session. Whatever sympathy may be felt for the Waihi strikers —and there is not the slightest ground for sympathy with their illadvieed action—no one who has any respect for the law can do other than commend the manner in which the police and the Magistrate at WaiTii have acted in a difficult situation. And no one can say that anyone is to blame but the men themselves. They have been treated with the utmost leniency. There was not the slightest reason for them going to gaoL They chose to go to gaol because they imagined it would servo the ends they have in view and embarrass those whose duty it is to preserve the peace and protect lawabiding citizens against insult and violence. The men who are at present in gaol could secure their own release at once merely by signing a bond of £10 to-keep the peace and obtaining a similar bond from a fellow-worker or from any reputable citizen. They are not asked to produce any cash or to do anything out sign a bond to keep the peace. They refuse to take advantage of tho means afforded them of cscapo from confinement; they have deluded themselves into the belief that they are doing something heroic by going to gaol needlessly. If Mr. Payne carries out his intention ,to offer himself as thoir bondsman—a quite needless offer, for the men can get bondsmen easily enough at Waihi— it will bo found that the men will not iivail themselves of it. They prefer gaol. It is the duty' of the Government tp see that the law is upheld; and it is equally the duty of the. Opposition to support the rinvnrHnvmti hi the enforccnianb of the law, .