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Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 110, 15 March 1892, Page 2

At one time in the history of this colony the employes in the Ciyil Service were looked upon as very lucky fellows, in fact they were fortune's favorites. This caused a number of heads of families of good social and political standing to use every effort to get their sons placed in a service where both honor an.d profit were to be gained, whether by merit or patronage. The consequence was that the several departments rapidly became oyer-manned, and the inevitable result followed — reductions on all sides and the discharge of many men who had become old in the service, and consequently useless for any other kind of work. The pruning knife does not appear to have been judiciously applied, nor the best men retained. The high standard which formerly characterised the service has been very considerably lowered, and according to the Napier Telegraph " No gentleman, however, who can help himself, would think of retaining service under the Government of New Zealand, and once our best officers, outmost trusted and experienced public servants, got out of it, they never want to couie back. Poor pay, ingratitude, uncertainty of office, spied upon, intrigued against, such are the main features of the Government service ; a worse service is not to be found in any civilised country— a service in which the best men are kicked out and fawning sneaks are kept in. We hear that it is a perfect ' dog's life' in the Government Buildings at Wellington. No one is safe from spies, and each officer suspects his neighbor of sneaking to Ministers." This is a heavy indictment. We have always held and expressed the

opinion that a parent or guardian who i makes his son, or a youth entrusted to his care, a Civil Servant or a clerk commits a grave sin unless the lad is physi- j cally unfit to wield a hammer or an axe, or lias not intelligence enough to learn a trade. If such a man wants to know what he is doing let him take note of what other men say on the point, and he will soon I discover the little esteem in which a mere < " quill driver" is held — even among his fellows.

It is a matter for congratulation that the Borough Council have decided to go on with the sinking of the artesian well in Manchester Square. Their action in this matter is only in keeping with the policy of progress they have so successfully adopted and followed out for the past two years.