A PROTEST.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2447, 28 April 1915, Page 4

A PROTEST.

; gi r _M r . Myers, M.P. for Auckland, is reported to have said amusements are necessary just now to keep up the spirits of the nation, and sport to make tie young men fit. Will.looking on at races and football make our young men fit ? Are the people so depressed that they , need amusements to keep up, their spirits? In the paperß we Teaa of the terrible sufferings and deaths of men who are dying so that we may be free; on the next page we read accounts of race meetings, of the great crowds there, and the large sums of money put through the totalisator. Thousands of the pick of our men have gone or are. going to the front, many others are almost breaking their hearts because stern duty keeps .them here. What of the lookers-on? Mr. Myers evidently would have us believe "looking on" is fitting them to take' the place of those, who, alas! will never return. Surely the futile utterances of >some of our so-called statesmen should be censored.-"Business as usual, but not sport and amusements as usual."— I am, etc., . PROTEST. , Masterton, .April'2l,'l9ls.

QUINQUE ANNOS PARTURIUNT , MONTES, UNDE EST CQNCEPTUS RIDICULUS MUS. Sir, —I am-given to understand that somewhere in America resides an animal called the Great Sloth. From all I can gather, he is an old r gentleman.of sedentary habits, who is 1 sluggishness personified, and rather than go to even the slight exertion of crossing the street for his dinner, prefers to perish miserably of hunger. ._ Whether this. is true I know not, Tjut it is certain that the Great Sloth is known the world over, as the symbol of. lethargy and laziness. These qualities, 'natural and estimable as they would no doubt appear in a universe peopled entirely by sloths,. are deserving only of severest reprdbation in the case of man. Therefore, I am led to ask in wonder how it is that a Government Department in up-to-date, progressive New Zealand should seek to model itself after such an undesirable pattern. Early in the year, I had occasion to write to the Public Service Department. Nine or ten days passed in silence, and then I received a brusquely-worded notice to the effect that my letter was receiving attention, and it was not till the expiration of another week that my original question was answered. Here we have a reversion to the red-tape type of officialdom that made the British War Office a by-word and reproach in the bad old days when favoured clerks were paid high salaries for the.sweet doing of nothing. Again, on April 2, I wrote requesting information on a point falling within the scope of the Department's business. Again history repeated itself, and I had to possess my soul in patienco till the 23rd. Then and then only did 1 succeed in wringing from the officials the information 1 required. In my 'opinion, such methods of transacting affairs of moment are , exceedingly discreditable to those who employ them. Such calculated procrastination has a most irritating effect; upon a busy man. Moreover, it can hardly be said to err on the side of that civility and polito treatment which every business correspondent {has a right to expect. But to turn to the real purpose of I my letter. - It is the 'rule that, every five years, the Public Service Commissioner shall present the Civil Servants with a. quinquennial bonus in the shape of a revised syllabus' of examination work. It was in connection with this syllabus that I asked the question which I found such difficulty in getting answerod., As the Commissioner has in his now syllabus made it obligatory for all science candidates to go through a couree of practical work, I inquired of him what arrangements ho had m»da ,iu Dunediu to wwt the n&sd, ks oait

himself brought into being. Here is the reply, given through his secretary : — "I am directed to inform you that it is not considered to bo the function of Government Departments to provide suitable opportunities for candidates for the Civil Service senior examination to perform practical work in science subjects."

Speaking generally, this may, perhaps, bo true. But I assert unhesitatingly that, in the particular instance to which I am referring, it is most distinctly obligatory on the Public Servioe Department to make such provision. Beyond any shadow of a shade of doubt, the high Commissioner who made the law is bound to provide the means to carry it into effcct, and,, if ho is unwilling or unable to do so, I submit that he has, been gudt-y . of very serious incompetency and lack of foresight. How does the Commissioner imagine his scheme is to be worked P Is he striving to extricate himself from the bog of muddledom into which he appears to have floundered, by laying the onus of his own responsibility upon the shoulders of the Civil Servants? Does he seriously expect them, in addition to their daily work, to scour tho towns and villages' in the attempt to find\ persons willing and competent to give instruction in the various sciences? Where is the talent for organisation? Where the brainy foresight?' - Where tho executive and administrative atility we instinctively look for from officials 60 highly placed? I reiterate that, since the Commissioner made the law enforcing practical scientific work, it is his plain duty, and his alone, to make suitable arrangements throughout the Dominion to ensure the possibility of carrying'out the regulations, of which he himself is the author. Should he neglact to do this, the newdeparture in the sy'Jtbus can oni.y he regarded as a deplorable ineptitude, and the fruit of his five years' labour as nothing better than a ridiculous mouse. —1 am, etc., T. RUSSELL. 57 Stuart Streot, Dnnediji.