GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS AND WARTIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 213, 28 May 1918, Page 6

GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS AND WARTIME

Sir,—Allow me to enter a strong and thumping protest against unnecessary and high-paid appointments to the Public Service during wartime. I refer to tho recent appointment—at ,£9OO a year— made in the engineer's branch of the Electric Telegraph Department. The appointment is an absolute waste of the already over-burdened taxpayers' money, and 6nould nover have been sanctioned by the Public Servico Commissioners. It appears that one officer holding a high position left the service, retiring on superannuation. The position vacated carried a salary of .£9OO a year, and to fill this position and evidently to avoid friction between the next two aspirants —who were already drawing large salaries—another and quite new position at .£9OO a year was created, thus making two positions, at this high rate of pay to be filled instead of one, and as a matter of pure fact it would not have made the slightest difference if both of these positions had been left vacant at the present timo. The billet just made, in an already much over-staffed and under-worked branch, where three positions could easily be rolled into one. was quite unnecessary., $ I know it to be a fact, that never be-

tore in tne nistory ot tna costal ana Telegraph Department has there been such widespread dissatisfaction as of late years, nnd never before such a revulsion of feeling against tho Wellington administration, and it appears to me that it is only through tho levelheadedness of some' of the lower-paid members of the service that a striking climax has not been reached, and these "put-up" appoint/ ments in the higher branches do not at all assist to quieten matters in the lower ranks of the service. I would suggest that tho public watch very closely the unnecessary expenditure and bad control now existing in some branches of the Public Service, and that this and other matters should be made public through Parliament, and a commission asked for to inquire into and annul 6uch unbusinesslike and unnecessary appointments, and of which the general public and taxpayers are quito unaware—l am, etc., ULTIMA THULE. , May 27, 1918.