A SUGGESTED REFORM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 199, 14 October 1909, Page 2

A SUGGESTED REFORM.

Civil Service Appointments, The first debate in the new Parliament was occasioned by the introduction^:;" Mr Herdman of his Public Service Bid which provides for the appointment ct a Commissioner who would have charp/0 of promotions and appointments in tr.e Public Service except in the Railway. Police and Education Department:. An appeal board is provided for in t. Bill which aims at doing away/ politicial patronage in the Pubi it- ;t----vice, and freeing the Ministers id : m continual applications for billets. Mr Herdman held that the cry met necessity for the reform was shown ::y the statement of the Prime Ministtr that a saving of a quarter of a nti.itcould be effected in the cost of the ci.y service. Speaking o? the retrenchment scheme •L-ir Joseph Ward asid that the Government would take an early opportunity toexplain its position and review what had been lone. He took except it:: t: Mr Herdman's statement that -he Bd._ would do away with the stuff in.:: tt persons into the Civil Service :":: : tical purposes. He would asn t specific instances. For the many ;.-•--:.. he, the Prime Minister, had administered the railways, in no case had mhlets been made for applicants. Tint same remarks applied to tite cm:: branches of the service. If the Bid ever reached the second stage he v.--.-.-.:. deal with it more fully. Mr Massey said Mr Herdman h..:l gone to a great deal of trouble in me':itig his fact?, but stronger am-'t;::ttn; in favour of the Bill than si: he hat said was the condition of the Civil Service. The present system was n. t satisfactory, not economical, and thent was a crying need for reform. It ": s a very serious state of affairs when had one in every seven in the poptdation dependent upon the Civil Servi.e for a livelihood. A division on the motion to introduce the Bi'.l resulted: AyesoG; Noes o.