Civil Service.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 July 1921, Page 4

Civil Service.

CRITICISM BY PRESIDENT OF N.Z. FARMERS’ UNION.

WELLINGTON, July 20,

Mr G. W. Lead-ley, president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, in -his address to delegates to-day, referred to the cost of the civil service. “It is doubtful,” he said, “whether we ate receiving value lor this expendituie. To begin at the top, we have too nitidi legislation, and too many legislators for such a comparatively small population. IL seems ridiculous that we should have 123 gentlemen sitting m Wellington for several months each year, grinding out Acts ol Lbirlianunt. many of which are hardly ever heard of afterwards. If w,. could grow wheat on the same scale as w<- grow Arts of Parliament, we should have a large surplus ol a very valuable eoiumodit\ The pity of if is that our Acts ol Rnrlianient. cannot be exported tor foreign use

“So far as our civil service u < corned, the nlain English ol tbp position is that we are gradually building up a solid and poi inamuil. •-truoteio. whose weight and wlm.-e influence through themselves and their dependants and connexions will be so powerful as to be able to suecossfully resist nil attempts at reduction or reform in ambitious or reckless politician even number or status or cost. Let any ambitious or reckless politician even now lead a crusade against tbo existing order of things in so far as the great multiplication of ■State employees is concerned, and tlm nerense in State expenditure in this- regard nnd what would he his fate' Annihilation swift and utter political annihilation. Tf there is to be any reform it must come from without, nnd 1 am glad R sec that there is a very strong body of public opinion forming on this q’"" tion. To ex-poet that referm-trench-ant reform, adequate reform will come from any other source than by oublie opinion T mean tnxon.ver-’ opinion k to expect too much. The late Admire' f ord Fisher said that Air Gladstone once told him that he (Mr Gladstone' was helpless against all the public <b’ rartments. There must come from Hu* (r r ent body of the taxpaying

strong and an insistent demand for fewer State officers, and a sternlv reduced expenditure, and this. f heliev can be one without materially affecting the efficiency of the service.”