THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Evening Star, Issue 24287, 31 August 1942, Page 2

THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

One effect of the war on conditions in this country is to place the Public Service under severe stress. How difficult the position has become is revealed in the report to Parliament by the head l of the department. In less than three years the service has been transformed from a peace footing to a war footing, and the staffs in the various sections have suffered severe depletion. It has been asserted by critics in the past that New Zealand’s public service has been over-staffed. If this is correct, it is a blessing in disguise, for it makes the rearrangements necessary through the calls for military duty easier. In his report the Commissioner says tho staffing problems could not very well he more acute. At the moment when it was compiled! 6,051 officers and employees were l away on duty in one or other of tho armed forces. Over and above that figure 62J officers had already returned from military duty, so that altogether 6,677 men bore uniform. The Commissioner points jut that at the outbreak of war there were not more than 11,000 males in tho Public Service, including the temporary and permanent staff's, so it can be understood not only that extreme endeavours have been made to release men for the fighting forces, but also there has been an unprecedented difficulty in maintaining old and providing for new or developing services. It is made clear that the Public Service provides no shelter for men who seek an excuse to evade their country’s obligations.

The Commissioner lias followed the policy that no officer is to he withheld' from military service whose place can he filled or whose duties can be postponed or covered by some expedient. “ Many forms of work that have hitherto been regarded as indispensable to safe and prudent administration have been placed under a pitiless scrutiny,. and either discarded altogether or postponed for the time being.” It has to he remembered that the many phases of the Dominion’s war effort have greatly increased the work of some of the departments in which the work can only ho carried out by officers of experience. The Commissioner does not mention this point, hut it is obvious that it lias a hearing on the general position. Employment of women has been extensively resorted! to as a moans of maintaining the State services. Altogether ,‘1,200 have been employed for wartime duty. and. in most cases, though now to the kind of work allotted to them, “ they have displayed remarkable adaptability.” What has been done so far is to make arrangements to offset the disruption caused by the imperative calls to military duty, but thought has to be given to the future. The Commissioner save that rehabilitation is the biggest per-

snnal problem ’that confronts the Public Service in the near future. Must of those who have given tbeir service in a military capacity will desire to return to tbeir former civilian occupations. This means that heavy staff adjustments will have to be made to accommodate them, but also ways of bridging the gap in their official careers will have to be planned. it needs no imagination to realise tho difficulties that will be encountered.