CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 20 May 1909, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

to the-; editor. ; Sir, The oMcr I get, and the more my cxpjrience of things expands, the more it is imprem'd upon mo, that, not until the blatant incompetents who assume the direction of Government, ! have served some indentureship to acquire the rudiments of the intricacies the positions they have presumed to enter upon, entail, and while learning, have proved some aptitude in the application of what they have learnt, will man attain to that life of unharass it is the purpose of Governments to I foster. And it discloses a parlous social condition when this is not attained: when the premier State Servant selects for colleagues, not only the by training and experience inept for such posts but the uneducated, the ignorant of Natural Laws, the visionarj. and the monomaniac. To illustrate what 1 mean, and that some 1 change similar to rules enacted for the selection of the les?er State Servants, is imperatively incumbent, I will state a case:—Ages of tentative progress ! have taught, that, say the designer of | bridges, must serve some years at the i drawing board, be intimate with mechanical motions, civil engineering, and • ; algebra. Hemust be able to categori-i cally state how he arrives 8t his re- j suits, and explain by text book known factors that ail stresses and strains I have been anticipated and provided I for; moreover, he must supply detailed j proofs that his calculations are exact, I ' before his design will be accepted, and , none but an inexpert supervisor will 1 recommend that money be spent upon [ the erection of a merely supposedly j safe-guarded design. These precautions arc truisms: they are common- ! place; and one would naturally infer 1 that a like forethought would suggest j| the selection of creatures to design the weal of a nation! Yet, is this so? Do we not with a mulish perversion allow self-constituted experts to strut and pose as such: to assume dictatorial infallacics, which past failures have again and again proved paltry imposten? And it is not until one set of | imbecilities has become unendurable, ami soul-revolt casts the incompetents out that we awake to the farce! But not until precious time has been wasted. wealth and energies mis-spent, j and the calamitous probability still extant that their successors will be of like deplorable calibre! It h pitiable j my masters. Yet this obselcte dis? : congruity enables the position, that j poseurs, who, say, cannot discriminate between a chord of arc, and a cord of firewood, nay, without aby your leave sirs, annex the status of Hon. Experts of road and bridge construction; its wage and emoluments, which we deny with ten-fingured horror, to men who have passed all grades and given proof : of that competence our civil service so exigeantly insists upon. Nay, whose pedancy is so densely complete that they are unacquainted with the courtesies and noblesre oblige, a pride of craft has decreed shall be observed! , For instance: It is usual when the j Minister in Charge of a D«partmc.nt ' visits a district, thai the orticer in charge shall accompany him. For who so abundantly as he can explain what he ha* done, what r*«|Uirmw to Im» ajid suggest, or receive suggestions for further improvements, instead of gaining that information by inadequate I correspondence? Yet later than last year, the so-called Supreme Expert passed throuflji the King Country Tin;! in a callous disregard 0/ professional amenities, passed over the local official who has been in charge of the district more than two years, in favour of another whose similar term of absence naturally incapacitate#'ljim l-ronj supplying th* inlocmation it is the object of the Minister's visit to collect I ! Thereby not only degrading ll>« iocal j official, but displaying a preference as injudicious as it was contrary to craft precedent, public utility, and the harmony of the servjep. 4b»», »tatqrally, thf. selected official conformed under protest; and, doubtless, hinted that the situation waa Irregular and in discordance with professional ettiquetto; and blushed at the invidious ' honoor; and

Furthermore: in the course of bis researches, (bis Expert arrived at a village—let us say- Aria. At this locality pregnant with great possibilities, a few settlers whor* occupation tOhJ Iftrvice, decided to Invite said Expert to partake of a banquet, and from information available the function was select, and a colossal success. Select, in that irreverent marplots were conspicuously uninvited ; and su?fei»fa>, because alien to discipline: Jack was as good as bis master!

Now the preceding, and what fallows, is to be construed isto « disparagement et my friends the backwoods roadmen. If the Minister could so belittle the relative status of inspector and workman, and permit his underlings to banquet bim, they stand absolved; for, scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, seem* an policy" wt what staggers the comprehensive observer is, that it, and the scenes that accompanied and followed the feast, a Crown Minister should deem consonant with t|t? diffuity' bis office -refers! he had said '*l>ook here, inetf:'this whisky and feed are all eight, but. let one tell yot}, highly improper. We a«* ityte servants her?, j»mu utb undor roe; and it is contrary to good repute that I should be banquet ted and liquored by my workmen. 1 am on a visit of inspection, hence you place me in $ £?flk>usly constrp**H* putitHin; especially if, as I hear, there are some unsettled matters between you and the engineer in etiargtr. 1 will eat of the spread, but do not conclude that I shall close my eyes to things I am here to look into. And now a word as to the whisky: We are In a prohibited area, and if the policeman discovers what we have in the quantity I see before me, it will be bis duty to persecute u«, as I bear he is in the babit of ?.fbe£ poor 4dYH»'at*l-forii le&erfoF than this. My being a Minister and you State roadmen. doc« not qualify ua for special immunities. No man may transgress the law, be he Governor or street scavenger." Had be spoken in this wise, and instead of night lodging overseer reetettot the accommodadon bouse near by, Ke Would iri * some tithe have retrieved* the glaring indiscretions, and minimised the heart UHteraeaet-s

I i his visit to the Robe Potac ha f caused to his staff. | It has been suggested to me that In I publication of these matters will rc f bound on our district. If thI:? is so j my labour has not been in vain fo ' such paltry revenge will proclaim thai ! every word has been justified by the f sequel.—l am, etc., W. 8., Te Kuiti