THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1754, 3 October 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1879.

A question arose at yesterday’s meeting of the Education Board which places in a strong light the unsatisfactory position occupied by the bulk of our public servants. A letter was read from the Secretary of the Education Department, Wellington, intimating that there were no funds from which payments of retiring allowances or compensation to teachers could be made. Shortly after the reading of this letter, another one was read from a certain Mr. Bay, in relation to his application for a retiring allowance or compensation, and pointing out that ho had no means of support. Should ho he able, the writer said, to go to England, he would he enabled to taka advantage of institutions existing there to meet such cases as his. Without any particular reference to Mr. Ray, it does appear very hard that, in a service such as the Government service, no provision should be made for persons who may become superannuated. It is not at all likely to encourage an esprit de corps, this faet that when its servants have spent their best days and energies in its service, the State is willing to throw them overboard to spin out the remainder of their days in whatever manner they may he able to. It may perhaps ho said—public servants are well paid, and they should lay by for rainy days. Exactly the same might bo said o£ anj public service. The very theory of a public service is averse to such a conclusion. When a youth enters a public service in other countries, he does so on the understanding that he must not expect to make a fortune as he might do in other lines of life, but that be will, if he does his duty faithfully by the State, be provided for moderately, and that he need be in no anxiety for the future. His whole energies are to be devoted to serving his master, the State, and in return for his thus handing his brain and hands over to his new master, he will not have to he constantly planning and plotting as to the necessity of gaining money outside his ordinary duties. Thrift he must of course use, hut, inasmuch as his whole energies are supposed to he delivered over to the State, he must of necessity reap some advantages in return. And these advantages are generally supposed to ho a certainty of constant employment and of the State making such moderate provision for the future of the individual, on the understanding that ho thoroughly does his duty, as shall enable the said individual to give his undivided attention to the affairs delivered to his care. It is not a matter of much importance how the fund out of which such provision be made is formed. It may nominally come out of the sums payable to the teachers, or it may come out of the consolidated fund. But it is evidently the duty of the State to place the matter on some fixed and permanent basis. The service should he made a service in more than name. The present state of affairs is most undesirable. And what is the natural consequence ? the whole of the Now Zealand Civil Service is out of favour with the public. The best available talent is not procured for it. No parent will send his son into it, unless ho is absolutely driven to do so. We are classing the public teachers with the regular Civil Service because they they are public servants in the strictest sense of the word. What results are shown by the lists published with reference to the Civil Service examinations ? Take an example. Wo have before us an article written in these columns some months hack respecting a Civil Service examination that took place last February. Sixty-six youths then passed either the senior or junior examination. Of these only three came from Canterbury. Nelson and Auckland furnished the hulk of the successful candidates. Otage only supplied 7. From these facts wo fairly drew the inference that in those parts of the country where business was most stirring, the Civil Service of Now Zealand was looked upon as a dernier resort. In those provinces only where there was a want of employment for young people was there any eagerness to furnish recruits. Indeed, the Service is mainly looked upon by successive Governments as a vile corpus on which it may make experiments in the direction of cutting down expenditure, and as long as such a state of things exists it is useless to expect that any satisfactory results will he obtained. To quote from the article alluded to : —“ The outside public can hardly conceive the extraordinary mancouvrings that have for years been going on with a view of cutting down the Civil Service list. About eight years ago a notification was issued that all pensions would he stopped, and it was stated that all claims which civil servants possessed by reason of their respective lengths of service would bo capitalised on a scale, for the purpose

of relieving tho Government of all further responsibility in the matter of such pensions. The civil servants sent in statements of their length of service, &c., and waited anxiously for replies, but none came, for the Government took a much shorter cut to the desired end by throwing the civil servants over entirely in this matter, and to this day the civil servants who held office before the formal abolition of pensions, and who entered the service on the understanding that they would bo entitled to a retiring allowance, confess themselves all at sea when asked on the subject. The Government, however, did really make one move in the matter, and a move that showed an unbounded affection for those in its employ. A short time back it sent round a circular, pointing out the fact that a Government Insurance Office existed, and that, if the civil servants were to insure in it, provision thereby bo made for their wives and children in case of accident!” Wo have given this long extract because it shows clearly the extraordinary shifts the Government has put itself to, to play fast and loose with a deserving body of men. It is full time that this sort of thing was put a stop to. Wo do not advocate an extravagant expenditure in the Civil Service, but let there bo some sort of system introduced which will render our public servants a contented instead of a discontented body of men. Tl;e public sendee has of late been tampered with in the direction of placing outsiders over the heads of men grown gray in the service ; but we think that such objectionable practices would not recur under a sounder state of political morality. But this is apart from the question of placing the status of the service on a more satisfactory footing.