PUBLIC SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 21, 20 October 1943, Page 4

PUBLIC SERVICE

Annual Conference Opened

Welcoming the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, to tiie opening of the annual conference of the New Zealand Public Service Association in Wellington yesterday, the president, Mr. T. Pound, said that, though the association knew no politics, that should not prevent him, on behlf of those present, from congratulating Mr. Nash on his return to Parliament and on the return of the Government. Mr. Pound asked Mr. Nash to convey to the Prime Minister thanks for his prompt repudiation recently when certain attacks had been made against the public service. “We knew that Mr. Fraser appreciated the work and worth of the public service, lint nevertheless wo appreciated his expressing his opinions in the circumstances mentioned,” ho said. The association was doing all it could to protect the interests of members overseas and to help in the collection of patriotic funds, said Mr. Pound. By means of small regular deductions from salaries just on £24,000 had so far been paid into the National Patriotic Fund. The association, he said, had never been more successful than it was today. It had reached a membership of nearly 21,000, fewer than 100 of whom had been unftnancial at tho close of the year. . Mr. Pound also expressed appreciation of the courtesy and consideration extended to the officers of Hie association by the Prime Minister and members of the Government and by tiie Public Service Commissioner, Mr. J. H. Boyes. A very few members thought the association was not militant enough, but he believed that a policy of friendly co-operation was in the best interests of members and it did not prevent their courteously pressing their claims. .