REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1312, 21 June 1880, Page 2

REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

■ • [from our own correspondent.] Wellington June 19. : : The Civil Service Commission have presented their report, which has been laid before Parliament. It contains many hard knocks and disclosures of a startling nature, and though professedly incomplete, points very conclusively to reforms that are urgently required. I intend giving your readers a brief summary of the report, endeavoring to keep it within limits, suitable to your columns. The Commissioners admit that it was impossible within -a few. weeks to collect the information necessary to enable them to report upon all .the departments arid. recominei\d a complete system of reform. They deemed it necessary, however, to collect such information as would eiiable them to recommend immediate reductions in, at any rate, a portion of the Service which is consuming so large a portion of the revenue df the colony at a time of great trial and depression. They have put a very broad interpretation upon the term " Civil' a,nd have included all employed and paid by the Government, consisting of 10,853 individuals. They came, early to the conclusion that

THE RAILWAY DEPARTMENT Was that which most urgently demanded reform, and in which there was tho greatest aniount of unnecessary expendi- ■ ture. To this department . they appear, therefore, to have given the greatest share, of the limited time at their disposal. The railways of the South Island first claimed their attention, and' in this large and' important 'section of the Servic_e.. -they found an evident tendency ta extravagance r—a disregard of the recognised precautions in the expenditure of public money. Men •with no special ability or training had -been appointed to highly-paid offices, and to perform duties either quite unnecessary I 'or within the capacity of ordinary clerks. They found the Service split up into three distinct departments, with such an absence of definition as to their respective duties and powers that the business is carried on in a constant spirit of antagonism between the departments.' . Whatever organisation ihere is has been the result of a series, of compromises agreed to at' various times.to avoid open rupturebetweenthesub-depart-ments. There was no complete control over the several branches; each head of a department doing very much as he pleased. The principle adopted on the railways of 'other countries, after riiany experiments, ■of giving the' person who has to carry on the traffic complete control oyer every : person employed on the line in such a way as to affect the' running of trains is not ; followed in this Colony. This principle the Commissioners deem essential to the proper working of the railways, and yet it has been iguored to such an extent on our railways that the traffic manager is precluded from giving orders to the engine drivers except through the locomotive engineer. Instances are given of the clashing of departments, the setting at de- ; fiance of the orders of the head of one department by the subordinates of another, | and the disregard of instructions by stationmasters &nd guards. The Comniis-

sioners refer to the" faofc of there being in connection, with the railway department in the Middle Island two distinct bodies of engineers employed on railway works—the public works ~ department having! charge of and issuing instructions to its : staff of engineers in respect to all new works on the working' railways, and the railway department employing a separate and distinct staff of engineers, men with th,e same professional qualifications, to undertake any alterations'or repairs which may be required on the lines open for traffic. The Commissioners are convinced that much evil and no good results from the existence of these two separate authorities, divided and often antagonistic engineering o.piuions having caused great expense, delay, and confusion. They found tliat really professional opinion is very §eldom sought for or required by those engaged in the daily work of keeping the line in repair, and that for all practical purposes the inspectors of permanent way are working engineers on the open lines, and would, often be bettor without the interference of less experienced men than themselves. They urge that the nearest: engineer in the Government service should always be available to give an opinion upon any necessary work. They repprt that since the railways have been' under the co.ntrol of the Commissiqner for the South Island, the railway telegraph department has been brought iflto existence, and that, like ; all other departments when once constituted, has grown to large proportions. They advise its abolition, without delay, and urge that the existing offices are sufficient "for the requirements of the railway, authorities, to whom a claim for precedence on the public telegraph wires should be given in cases of urgency- They also urge that where business is large 3, special wire shoqld be granted, and recognise the desirableness of railway officers being instructed in telegraphy. The Commissioners then give some instances of the employment of highly paid but .unnecessary officers. They instance a case in Dunedin where an officer was engaged as locbraqtive engjneey., who experience, having been educated as a carpenter, but who received a salary of L6OO a year, his duties being to inspect working engines and ascertain whether they needed repair, and then instruct a long-experiencecl locomotive foreman what' to do. At Nelson . they found a manager of railways drawing L4OO a year, although he had under his charge 20 miles of railway on whigh tiyp trains a day only were "being run. Neither the inspector of permanent way nor the engineers engaged in a roofless workshop took instructions from this manager. They also found a railway storekeeper drawing Ll6O a year who had no office and: no stores to look after. They consider that the duties of both the manager and the storekeeper might advantageously bp ad4?4 to thg exceedingly demands made-upon the energies'of the Nelson station-master, Again at Ifaipara there was an assistant manager over 10 irjilea of railway receiving LBOO a year, that oould be performed by a chief stationmaster.The Commission say that when such examples cropping up on the surface are disclosed by a hasty investigation, there can be tfot 3, lq.rg§ number of unnecessary officers, could be dispensed with by a head of the department who really wished to reduce the expenditure. The great Variety of locomotive engines in the Colony,(sixteen different kinds) is referred to as giving rise to many inconvenient anfl adding muc}i to difficulty post of maintenance, owing to the serious addition to the cost of patterns, duplicates, repairs, : The Commissioners animadvert strongly upon the wanton destruction of property through carelessness, instancing tarpaulins, which, through absence of care, are misused, lost, or. gtolen. In gome places they found heaps pf unprotected stqrpg purchased fpom private merchants and manufacturers at an excessive cost, capable of giving facilities for dishones appropriation. They mention an instange of thirteen railway carriages being so damaged through exposure to the weather that it cost L 1477 to. put them in a fit state for use before they earned a shilling, and state that valuable engines are still allowed to remain exposed to the weather, with the sea spray : blowing over them. The report deals pretty, roughly with the state in which some carriages built by contract in Dunedin were delivered in Christchurch last year, tfyeir condition being thus described by a witness ;—" Some of them

p • .jr-;icefi)]ly had workmanship, bad li.'.;' bi% »|iiSt!iso ..1 s-ri:i-y b;i k histoid of irou bark, joints not property made,

t Some had bottom frames held up only, by nails in the flooring boards. Some had" almost to be rebuilt within six weeks." The Commissioners declare there is an absence of .proper arrangements for protecting from the weather valuable property of all descriptions. The greftteßt waste of public money is probably going on in the railway workshops, in which v a 1 large number of highly paid artisans are employed without any careful or trustworthy calculation as to the result of the labor. The Commissioners instance the case of the workshops of Invercargill, where they found smiths employed making, points and crossings. They ■were assured \hat each set made was a saving of L 5 to the Colony, but on making ample inquiries they found that while the locally made articles was Ll7 a set, the cost of the imported articles,, after adding every expense, was Ll2 Is 8d» so an absolute loss was incurred of LR upon every set of points arid crossings, turned out of that workshop. The want, of system, supervision, and precaution in v the railway stores department ia so great;, that- it can hardly fail to lead to most objectionable practices and serious publio loss. Where tenders are invited the course) taken produae3 very little competition, sufficient publicity ; not being given „ while publio officers have tempting facilities offered, of gratifying contractors by passing inferior "articles, and they dp not always resist the temptation. Besides this, the Commissioners found that thousands of pounds worth of stores 1 are annually obtained without tender, .but , merely purchased by the railway servants how and wherei they choose to -bestow their patronage. : Tenders, too, have been i accepted for largely consumed articles at prices that should -never have been enters tained, and in consequence the cost of maintaining the lines in the Colony has> been greatly and unnecessarily increased.. Heavy castings, giving great protit to th» contractors, are ordered and found useless,, and irresistable suspicion is created that the protection of the public interest hasnot been made the first consideration in the transaction. Thia system of obtainingrailway stores from contractors in tho Colony should be at onoe discontinued, arid all articles of, large ordinary consumption imported. There is an absence ; of general oontrol, leading to inevitable confusion and waste, and they recommend a careful reorganisation of the department as urgently required. ' The ComtniSsioners find that the South Island Commissioner has capital invested in a firm contracting with the department of which he is the head, and his receipts from this capital depend on the success of the firm. Such a fact can hardly fail to influence the action of officers serving under tho Commissioner, and destroy the confidence of the firms tendering for railway supplies. It is impossible to estimate the loss the Colony may have suffered from tho obviously false position held by the working head of the principal railways— a position which should not be permitted under any circumstances. The loose, irregular, and suspioious transactions of the kind, mentioned are not noticeable in the North Island, where the formalities and safeguards are adhered to, and where tho strictness is sometimes carried a little too far, but in neither island could they find evidence of an able, searching, economical supervision, a vigilant protection of tho publio -interest. They found that the Commissioner for the North Island was not sufficiently informed upon : many important details of his own department, and that distant officers were 1 guided and restrained 'with a very loose 1 hand. As an instance, they mention that in February, 1879, a traffic manager of great experience in India and Australia was appointed to the charge of the traffics ' of the Auckland line, with inducements of an inoreased salary if he reduced the working expenses from 94 per cent, bf tile 1 gross receipts to below 70. While ho ■ continued in that position the expenses > were reduced to 68 per cent., without any r friendly aid from his superior officer, tho ' Auckland general manager. The loud ' complaints previously made by the Auck- ■ land publiq were silenced, and his condu£ ■ to have been satisfactory; but < "■ QonsequencQ of the language and action' ! of his superior oifiQer, thia officer was l compelled to resign. His resignation was ■ accepted, but though the general mariagor was censured for his action, his services i were retained, while a successful tvqfliq i manager was lost to the servioe, uncj ' public complaints again j so little > encouragement do, eg service offer to I meritorious or even successful officers, i and go easy is it made to drive away any > dangerous rival. The ease with which i they detected much irregular, wasteful, • and extravagant management of the.soutl} Island railways, and the i Commissioner had stated iu his) evidopco s that he had don§ ttyit cotyld be dope, > and saw np, way of making the service ' more economical, leade to, no other c.otb s clusio.n than gorfle one else should ' take in hand a service of bucli vital imi portanc9 to the prosperity of : the Colony, and. susceptible of very large ' reductions in the present expenditure. The Commissioners are convinced - New Zealand railways are not so I ably or so economically a? might bo, > or as tfya welfare qnd the credit of tho i oolony demand'that they should be, and jtj > naturally follows that efforts, [ made to. place th§ control under a mora v able head/ Neither of the present Rail- : way Commissioners,, have displayed the ; high qualities necessary for the responsible • tasks undertaken, and no personal con-, i sideration should be allowed to preyo ll ' i their removal from the control of an in: ii terest so inseparably qoflnpptpd witli the t prosperity o? adversity of the colony, i One permanent head ig better than two, ■ , if a sufficiently able and reliable man , i could be found to take the position. The permanent head should be a man of i business, with good organising capacity, rather than simply an engineer, or oven a railway expert, and should be expected : to arrange the business of the as a private proprietor ■vyitl} a view to make the Jiuo and §srvp the piiblip. npcpssal-ily be a reduction of not less than per cent, on railway wages and salaries, though possibly it is not desirable that there should bo a perfectly uniform application of this decreaso of pay to all officers and branches of tlie service. This would effect a direct saving of L 52,000, and would naturally lew indirectly to a great of nevf works let lay tender, likely to reach an equal amount, . ■ [We are compelled to hold over until to-morrow the balance of the summary of the report.]