PUBLIC SERVICE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 259, 24 June 1932, Page 6

PUBLIC SERVICE

"CARRYING ON"" NECESSITY FOR ADHERING TO ITS ESTABLISHED TRADITIONS. ATTITUDE TO POLITICS. The need for adhering to the traditions upon which the service has been built is strongly emphasised in an editorial published in the June number of the Public Service Journal. "It is established by tradition that the Public Service shall not become involved in party politics, and that tradition was born of that experience which is the mother of wisdom," states the article. "The State is governed by a Minister selected from the party holding the majority of votes, and the alliance or affiliation of the Public Service through its organisations with any political party eligble to control the reins of government would represent an attempt by the Public Service to impose a restraint upon the Administration. That restraint however circumscribed would tend toward the tSate existing for the service, rather than the- service for the State, which is the sole reason for the very existence of a Public Service. "The events of the last six months have but intensified the view which we quote, and, however sore beset our members have been, and will continue to be as the result of the session just terminated, it is essential for them to recognise to the full that aloofness to party politics must ever be our attitude if we are to recognise the ethical side of our traditions. Facing Misfortunes. "Negotiations between the association and the Government is the keynote to the maintenance of reasonable conditions in the Public Service and its advancement, status, efficiency and true economy. All these are necessary to the existence both of the service and of the people, and it is the sympathy and co-operation of the people, and Parliament as a whole, rather than a party, to which the Public Service has to appeal for the accomplishment of these objectives. To-day we consider that the service has not been fairly dealt with in the recent legislative enactments, but, however we may fret and fume because of this, we must not be tsmpted into departing from the clearly-de-fined channels which tradition has laid down for us. "Reductions of salary, retrenchments, the modifying and in some cases the abolition of allowances, together with poorer working conditions have fallen widespread and destructively upon us. Personal sacrifices for the common good have been made, and even though we consider that the service has been more than harshly treated, particularly in its lower grades, true men and women in the service will face our misfortunes coul rageously. Superannuation Intact. "No organisation of workers in or outside the service has been able wholly to stay the economic storm. Our organisation, in co-operation with other , service organisations, has at least been able to modify its effects, and, as we stated in last issue, as the result of representations through the channels open to us, has possibly minimised the reductions, and certainly saved the salary increments and allowances not in the nature of salary. In addition, our superannuation scheme is still intact. It may be good to remind ourselves, however, that nothing that has been taken away was obtained in the first instance except by the patient persistency of the association."