The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1883. Civil Servants.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 30, 14 August 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1883. Civil Servants.

In tbeir anxiety to wipe out some of the imaginary wrongs inflictea on them by civil servants of the Colony, some ot the members of th* 1 Opposition display an infantile* petulance when the very name of civil servant is mentioned. What these wrong's are no one can tell positively, but we can sur mise that many weak-kneed members of the Opposition cannot distinguish any difference between a civil servant and a member of the Ministry now in power. The Mew Zealand Civil Ser vice is fortunate in having 1 in its racks many gentlemen who are, both bv birth and education, far superior to some of those individuals wh:>, fur the time.being, have the honor to be their official superiors by being members of the House. A knowledge ot inferiority is certain to engender a feeling of hatred when the one in " high placa" is the inferior in education and intelligence to his temporary subordinate We are led to these remarks by Mr Mitchelson, the member for Mars : den, who appears anxious for the disfranchisement of the whole of the civil servants, railway employees, &c. Mr Mitchelson appears to believe that it is impossible for a civil servant to exercise his privilege as an elector honestly, from the mere fact of his being in the receipt of pay from ih<? Colony, and that therefore he ought to be deprived of his rights as a citizen, if we push this to a logical conclusion, we can proye, supposing- Mr Mitchelson to be correcj* in his views, that Mr Mitchelson himself is unfit to sit in the House or to hold the privilege of the franchise. As this gentleman, with the other members ot the House, are the paid servants ot the country whether they receive their wages as a solatium or an honorarium, they are equally unfit to have a vote, and if this was so they could not be electors and consequent!) could not sit in the House. Q 10. D. And this rule would apply So the whole Parliamentary body Looking at the question from another point of view, it seems a'tsurd that iellow servants should quarrel among themselves ami shou'd display so much petty jealousy It may be excusable that members of the House, who»are alter all, only the temporary of the country, should have some feelings of euvy towards those of the permanent branches of the service whose appointments are for life, provided they conduct themselves with honesty and propriety. In this reppect a messenger boy is the equal of the Premier of the Colony. Members have not this advantage, because their services may be dispensed with very suddenly by their constituencies, ar>d they relegated to obscurity, while the civil servant can live on, daily '• increasing his store " and rising in soci.il - and monetary position. His position of power a« he rises is gratifying to the ambitious mind, and is more substantial (ban the momentary popular applause that a mere politician can w iii, from the fickle multitude. We hold, then that a civil servant is really entitled to as much, if not more, respect and consideration as a member of the Housfu The existence of the latter i« ephemtral, while thut ot the forto^J - iroes on tor f ver." \.^^^H