The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1929. THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1929. THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Serious concern over the rapidly increasing cost .of the civil service was expressed by delegates to the recent conference of Associated GhambeiT'of Commerce at Auckland. The Public Service Commissioner, Mr Versehaffelt, who was present at the conference during the discussion on the subject, seemed to doubt the figures that were submitted , in proof of the argument that the expenditure upon the administration of the public services of the Dominion was excessive and attempted to narrow the scope of the criticism to those departments which come directly under his jurisdiction. The returns relating to these branches of the Public Service show, however, that in the last fifteen years the personnel has increased over 50 per cent., and the cost in salaries has increased two and a-third times. The Railways Department, the Post and Telegraph Department, school teachers and casual 1 employees are excluded from control by the Public Service Service Commissioner, and the figures relating to them, which are supported by departmental records, are illuminating. The staff of the Railways Department has increased, by 4-M.O, while salaries have jumped by £2,214,000 to £4,173,000 in fourteen years, and in the case of Post and Telegraph, Education and Public Works departments the increases in staffing and administrative expends have been disproportionate to tne increase of 30 per cent, in population during that period. Mr Versclmffelt argued that new activit'es had been included in the work of the various departments in response to a public demand and that the increases in public expenditure were really to • oe found in war debt charges, pensions. and social services. When all this is acknowledged it does not explain away the enormous growth in administrative cost and in the number •of public servants which lias been noted. The very fact that a heavy drain on public funds is necessitated by the payments tlmt have to be made in respect of the permanent appropriations, in which are included the interest charges and the war nonsions as well as other pensions, constitutes a reason'

why, in the intercit of the taxpayer, the ordinary departmental expenditure should bo carefully watched with a view to the imposition of a cheek upon extravagance Naturally no Government can lie .expected to contemplate with any degree of pleasure the practice or retrenchment in the public service with the- certainty that a feeLiig of antagonism to it would be ex.-ited in the minds of an appreciable section of the electorate, but that is probably a consideration that dos not appeal very strongly to the taxpayers noon whom the burden of sustaining what has every appearance of being an over-manned public service inexorably falls. It was remarked at the conference of Chambers of Commerce that the overhead costs of administration in New Zealand were entirely out of proportion to the size and wealth of the country and that any business enterprise which was conducted on the same lines would speedily nave to be. wound up. It may be, says the Otago Times, that excrescences cannot be lopped off in a public service with the severity that may be necessary in the case of a private' undertak.ng, for the conditions are not entirely" analogous, but there is one State Department that is purported to be run as’ a commercial enterprise and in its case it is almost notorious that the. staff is in excess of the requirements. Clearly, the taxpayer has reason for objecting to the expenditure of public -money in such a wasteful manner as is represented" by the maintenance- of a public Service that is swollen to dimensions greater than the country actually needs.