PRISONS CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 62, 7 December 1926, Page 5

PRISONS CONTROL

MR. BALLARDS APPOINTMENT AN APPEAL PENDING “It is not our function as an organisation to comment on the public agitation in the Baume case” (says the “Public Service Journal” editorially). “Certainly the honour of individual public servants has been assailed, but as the Government has provided a Magisterial inquiry in regard to the charge of favoured treatment, the light of day will, we feel satisfied, indicate that no public servant has prostituted his position in this regard. “We are, however, particularly interested in the attack that has been made on the appointment of the Con-troller-General of Prisons. When, on the resignation of Mr. Hawkins, Dlr. B. L. Dallard took over the reins temporarily, the association interested itself in the filling of the position permanently. The Commissioner advised that Mr. Dallard was going to the Prisons Department temporarily. Some months later, when the position was duly advertised, the announced salary was £B5O per anuum. We consider that the action of the Government (which fixes the salary of administrative officers) in assessing the value of this position so low—a salary less than that of a junior Magistrate—automatically narrowed the choice. Of the applicants for the position, Mr. Dallard was selected b.v the Public Service Commissioner—rightly or wrongly—as the most suitable. In other words, the Commissioner exercised his judgment—the power given him by the Government in the matter of appointments to the Public Service. That decision is open to review by any one of the applicants who may consider that he has greater claims to the position. and, as a matter of fact, while the controversy has been at its height, such an appeal is pending. What the association marvels at, however, is the lack of a plain statement of the position from the Minister in charge of prisons immediately the appointment was challenged. Surely this would have been eminently more satisfactory than the Minister’s statement of confidence in Mr. Dallard. Descending to mere personalities, it may be said that the executive of this association knows Mr. Dallard's qualities intimately, and it, too, has confidence, which the somewhat injudicious handling of the Baume case on someone’s part has not lessened, but the point at issue is—was he the _ most efficient applicant for this _ position ? That is for the Public Service Appeal Board to determine, the body created bv the Government for the specific purpose of reviewing any decision of the Public Service Commissioner in the matter of appointments to the Public Service.”