The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1886. Civil Service Reform

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 151, 1 June 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1886. Civil Service Reform

Thb influence exercised by Ministers and Members of Parliament in the matter of political appointments or the promotion of " friends of the family in office," to well paid offices, has hitherto been nominally sub rosa. By the Civil Service Reform Bill, recently circulated among members, it is proposed to do it openly and allot to each member the exact amount of patronage ha may exercise, and thus give official recognition to what has hitherto been called a notorious abuse, even by those who most frequently availed themselves of their positions to advance the interests of their friends. We make the following extract from a Wellington contemporary : — " Every member of the House is to have, ex ojicio, the right of making on* nomination for not more than one candidate, but not to have the right to make any second or further nomination until after all the members of the said House have made one such nomination, or have had the opportunity of so doing, and have not done so within one month after being required to do so. Where a nomination has been made by any member as the representative of any electoral district, no further nomination is to be received from any other person as member representing the same district until as hereinbefore mentioned. Where there are more nominations made than vacancies to be supplied, the selection of candidates to be appointed is to be determined by lot among the nominees themselves, to be conducted under the direction of the Oolonial Becretary. Every nominee appointed is to receive an appointment if there be any vacancy. Where there are more vacancies than nominations, then those members of the House who have not exercised their right of nomination will be requested each to nominate not more than one candidate for such remaining vacancies." This means neither more or less than that the Civil Service of the cauntry is to be flooded, not onlr with friends of the Ministry of the day, but the friends and relatives of each member of Parliament. Wo hope that this objectionable clause giving " the right of nominatioii" in such an indiscrimate manner will be struck out. The idea of doling out the patronage to members is peculiarly objectionable.