Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY, 30th. 1919. EFFICIENCY.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1919, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY, 30th. 1919. EFFICIENCY.

According to reports tile Government is about to get rid of the National Efficiency Board. It is given out that it K order of reference is about exhausted and the war being ended it is not deemed advisable to continue the work of this Board, which was purely advisory. In principle a National Efficiency Board should be a sound adjuncture aid to the general administration, but as matters went the Board wa s something of a fifth wheel to the State coach. It will be recalled, that on one occasion the Board struck, because its members got tired of tendering advice which the Ministry never acted upon! There was some temporising, but some of the members went out of office in disgust. Following the reorganisation the Board appeared a litjtlc more in evidence and was set various odd jobs in connection with war aspects. The Board was organised very elaborately and its establishment from first to last has cost the country a largo sum. Just what it has achieved of value it would be difficult to detail. Much of it s work might have been done just as well by other branches of the sorvico already established. It certainly brought forward its recommendations regarding liquor and the proposal lor compensation, which the Government were ready enough to seize upon. As a result a very costly poll is to be put upon the people shortly, and if the issue is carried the ineubu s of debt will be a reminder for many a day of the fleeting existence of the National Efficiency Board. The Board exercised a baneful influence in other directions regarding prohibition of race trains and a curtailment of racing. These are now being restored at a moment when there are less men than ever to conduct the trains. The Board’s efforts in this direction achieved very little, aroused much angry comment, and on the whole left the people more discontented than otherwise. There docs not appear to be a great deal of regret expressed .at the impending demise of the Board. The shortcoming in regard to the Board was the lack of personal responsibility of the members. Their suggestions were purely advisory; they did not have to carry them out, nor did they have to face the consequences of their action. The chief fault was perhaps in the selection of the g'’ll- - Their minds ran too much in a groove, and they were not as much in touch with the people* as they should have been]' Really, the success of government is to givo the people what they want—for after all vox populi is not much astray. The art of government is to meet .the wishes of the people with small doses, and let the human system work slowly up to an ideal. The tendoney to prohibitory legislation i s theP cause for much heartburning and a general upsetting of affairs. It produces discontent, and action tending ifo prohibition should be well weighed. The ulterior rather than the immediate effects should he studied, for aiming at efficiency, the mark is missed all too often and muddle results, with consequent upheaval.