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NZ Truth, Issue 1196, 1 November 1928, Page 6

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CIVIL- SERVANTS' GUARDIAN

SOME earnest people have an idea of abolishing private enterprise and turning every man Jack of us into civil servants. And if that came to pass, it is obvious enough that Frank Millar, general secretary of the Public Service Association; would be a greater noise m the land than even Gordon Coates. ■ '■ •■• ' '\ . • •• ■ • •• , ■ '"■■''■

But possibly the. masses are not hankering to become civil servants; so Frank need hardly prepare for amoverwhelming, accretion of members. ■ There is something o f the go-getter about Millar. Always alert and, keen to elaborate a point, he will hold you like the ancient mariner until his story is told. He is a product of Dunediri, a.city which is alleged to be dour, but whence issues quite a number of bright young people.

Surely an aberration of parental judgment to have risked sinking a bright tyouth like Frank m the chill depths of the Public Service? Nevertheless, he rose clear of the stagnant waters and reached the post of an assistant inspector of special schools. And then he became imbued with a keen desire to lighten and brighten the stodgy lives of the mass of civil servants. He was the honorary secretary of the Civil Service Association, when the membership was a meagre hundred or so. , ■ . Frank grew with his job, until he finally passed ; in his checks as a civil servant to become the chief paid executive of. the association. No ordinary sort of secretary is he, watching the interests of a body of workers following the same calling and stepping forward as one man with the same precise problems. . , With the State diving into all manner of enterprises, a Civil Service union of to-day gathers strength from almost every trade, profession and calling 1 m the land,- Not surprising,, therefore, that Secretary Millar should be a versatile sort of soul, with more than a passing knowledge of the vocational, problems, of many workers m the land.. . .When the State throws a tentacle over the theatre, Frank will not be nonplussed over a few extra civil servants, as he already gossips about matters histrionic m a bright little magazine. ' : 1 And when his brow is puckered m thought, it is c simply a sign that he is pondering how to drag back those salary "cuts'? out of the wilderness of faded prosperity. ' ... A genial, popular chap, is Frank, with a large belief m friendly cooperation as a cardinal principle of life.