The Hokitika Guardian THURSDAY, NOV. 3rd, 1921. RETRENCHMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 3 November 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian THURSDAY, NOV. 3rd, 1921. RETRENCHMENT

It would appear that a policy of staff reduction is now being pursued in the Post Slid Telegraph Department, nod that this polity takes the form of compulsorily retiring all einployeees with over forty years of service, and of dismissing. also some of fi)ie youngest rerraits. on the very humanitarian ground that they are better able to find fresh employment than older members. AA’e all regret that such a policy should be necessary, comments the Lyttelton ‘•Times’’ but that it is necessary very few persons outside the Department and conversant with the Department’s recent recards of expenditure and amount of service rendered will ho found to dispute. The Department i# the victim pf inefficient aud amateurish

administration. Despite tlm laei that its rapacity for working uji to the full limit of efficiency was hampered firstly by the economic consequences of the war, and secondly by the increases in all directions in charges to the public which have been a feature of post-war admhiistration, stalling, has been increased from year to year at a rate which would scarcely have been justified had a normal rate of progress been achieved. Reading between the lines of the official statistics it is not difficult to perceive that in the ahsen e of proper Ministerial supervision the permanent heads of the service have been able to secure the establishment of a condition of affairs which, however desirable and satisfactory from the standpoint of the bureaucrats, lias germinated the Seeds of inevitable disaster. Paced some months ago with the alternative of reducing staffs in proportion to the service rendered and the revenue ufhtaim'd and increasing direct charges to the public in order to improve the revenue, the Administration, unduly influenced, we suppose by the representations of departmental heads, decided to take the latter c*ours«». That it was the wrong rmirse is now becoming obvious, and tlu* ob•vinos wrongness of the policy, is making itself most dearly evident in the telegraph and telephone departments. In the first quarter of last year the total number of telegraphic and telephone bureau communications totalled ■1,100,31 I, and the revenue was £165.077. The institution of higher charges resulted, at the outset, in a marked reduction in traffic, but also a fair increase in revenue. Eor the last quarter, however, that ended September 30th.. while the number of commiinications is down to 3.101,127. the revenue is down to £101,130. With a decreasing service, an increasing staff and a rising revenue, the Adminis!ration, which after all is not dependent tor its occupancy of the Treasury Denches oil a majority vote of the people, could afford to let things drift. Rut when its sinews of war are weakened bv a reduction of revenue it lias perforce to take notice. It would appear that it has taken notice in characteristic fashion, enforcing the resignation of employees with forty years’ service as well as taking the sounder course of purging the service of new recruits whose appointment was demon, strably a grievous error. AYo have not the slightest sympathy with tile regulation which forces an employee out °l the public service because he or she Iras served forty years. The underlying spirit of the regulation is not efficiency or public service but the application of what the late bold Fisher used to call tin* rule of ■‘Huggins’s turn" the theory that every public' servant is entitled to promotion on the scole of length of service nn<| that, to ensure the exercise of that right the older men must be automatically retired, whether they are efficient or inefficient. An lliistrntion to the effect of the system was given yesterdiv "ben the Minister of .Justice paid a glowiflg tribute to the value of the services of the Under-,Secret,aiy of his Department, a gentleman who is retiring on superannuation. AVhy these valuable services should is* dispensed with is one of those things no one prytends to understand. The theory is logically unsound and the process is irrational, but we presume that it constitutes the line of least resistance ami that it is therefore hopeless to expect the present Administration to take ally other line. AA’e hope, however that the members of the I’osf and Telegraph service will not regard as natural enemies those who, like ourselves are firmly convinced that in the interests of sound finance the stuff must be rod need to dimensions consistent with the amount of work performed. Their real enemies are those whose procrastination, weakness and incapacity got the service into its present unstable condition.