THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8355, 15 February 1913, Page 8

THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

To the Editor “N.Z. Times.” Sir, —We have now, under the -aiassoy Government, an emoryo commission, consisting of three members, one of wnom is reported to bo a very fierce and fractious man. The'whole Civil (service, and the rest or tne public, were uuuer me impres sion that the commissioners would take charge on April ist (an appropriate day), but it seems that they nave antedated the fatal „ day, and have also antedated their salaries (something like £3OO a month) by three months. The fierce man of the exploration party has Oeen turougU many ot tne departments, looking at tne top of things, and going away with the idea that he knows au about what is underneath. He is said to have decided that the work now done by two men can be done by a gi*l and a machine; that the worn (and calculations) now done with a pen and brains can be done by machinery, and that tho work done by the chief clerk of one department, employing about seventy officers, could be done by a senior cadet 1 This does not concern mo much. But I want to know why the embryo commission begins work before its birth P Why innovations are to be made before it starts work? And why it has started so early to wreck the Government which called it into being. That the fierce man will weed out gees without saying. The commissioners will cost the country during the next seven voars about £40,000, and some poor devils in the Civil Service will have to bo sacrificed to make up that £40,000. The fierce man is great on machinery. He does not think of the men who may be thrown out of employment by his machinery.—l am, etc., JOHN SMITH. Wellington, February 14th.