THE CIVIL SERVICE AND BUREAUCRACY.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1928, Page 8

THE CIVIL SERVICE AND BUREAUCRACY.

“ As regards the exorcise by public Departments of legislative inactions, there is this I think to be said. In any Statute which gives to any administrative authority the power to regulate the ordinary relationships ot human life, a certain degree of elasticity is desirable if just and efficient admmis4ration is to be secured. 1 he d

mauds upon parliamentry time make it almost inevitable in present circumstances that the Statute itself should be limited to the formulation of pr.-n----eiples and the creation of the necessary administrative machinery, leaving matters of detail to regulation, and I believe that infinitely better practical results can lie secured in this way. It has seemed to me, and I have followed these matters pretty closely, that attacking the bureaucracy is sometimes only a convenient, if oblique, method of attacking the responsible Government. of the day; a method which perhaps—and I say this with bated breath —has particular attractions from the point of view of those critics who profess the same political creed as the Government that happens to be in power,”—Sir John Anderson, Permanent Under-Secretary to the Home Glare, in an address at the sessions (he Institute of Public Administraiion.