CIVIL SERVANTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1778, 17 June 1913, Page 6

CIVIL SERVANTS.

IN LOCAL POLITICS. 1 SHOULD THEY BE ELIGIBLE FOR OFFICE? j PRIME MINISTER AGREES. One of the questions raised by a Petono deputation, which interviewed tko. Hon. W. P. Massey (Prime Minister) yesterday afternoon was that of the right of railway employees and other Civil Servants to participate ill local (politics. Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., in introducing the deputation, said that its objoct was ta ask that full civic rights should be granted to Civil Servants. Tho matter- of the political rights of Civil Servants had been, thrashed out in. tho Hou?o, when tho M'Culloghcase oamo up for. consideration'. A meeting; at Petono had passed a resolution drawing tention of the Government to the injustice imposed upon, boroughs like Petono by the regulations whioh prevented Civil Servants standing for election to local bodies, and requesting that these regulations should be abolished. Mr. Wilford mentioned the case of a railwayman, now a workshops manager or foreman at Whangarei, who was at 'One timo Mayor of Onslow, but eventually had to give_up the position becauso he was a Cmi Servant. A large number of Civil Servants lived at Petono and at the Hutt. Many of them wcro highly-skilled in accountancy, engineering, and other pursuits, and it was only natural that the general body of citizens should desire the assistance ot these skilled brains in matters of local government. Another point was that these Civil Servants were ratepayers who had no voice in tho management of their own concerns and the expenditure of their own monev. They wcro I'aM®. f °l' rates, and had the right to vote, but they were not allowed to become borough councillors or mayors, although' BMno them wera among the ablest men in the W srTHv. M'Ewan (M&yor of Petone) and Mr. L. Townseiul spoke in support of the previous spoakws contention. Mr. ifassey said tort thi 3 matter had not come before Cabinet, colleagues had not .vet come Mu e conclusion in regard to it. &peaun 0 ior himself,-he paw no earthly reaion^wny or in otner branches of the Cml bemce should not take part m local P This had been liis opinion for a very Irni<* time. and it "was liis opinion still. no objection to a State Woj*eo pnrfcicipatingr in local P^^Xal he attended to the busmess of the loea^ body In his own timo. That wasi the position in a nutshell Tho Pnmo fer added that ho drew tho lino ■ at general politics. If employe®* of the State wore to'take part m gcn e ral p" ifa e| it might lead to a. considerable amount ot friction, not only from their own point of view, bnt with tho ordinary elections. He thought that Civil Servants generally were wise refraining from a^. T ® ' ticipation in general (politics. uiUks, « course, a man intended to become a be expressed to Cabinet as it had been expressed to the deputation. . Mr. Wilford, in thanking the_ Prime Minister for receiving tho deputation, expressed the hope that it would bear good fruit; ,