The Daily News WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 18 September 1907, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. THE CIVIL SERVICE.

A gentleman who U paid somethiug un-| 1 der a thousand pounds a year to stand on some steps and make a few remarks once in half a century may with some justice be called a sinecurist. Coluiiol Kearns, whose duty it was to give notice to the passing London errand boy and the few King's lieges' who could hear him from the steps of the Royal Exchange that New Zealand was to be a Dominion, doesn't care much whether he is paid overtime for all cries lie may eject or not. Old moss-grown custom dies hard, and our Premier has lately announced that some of the anomalies in the postal service which we had the privilege of first pointing out had been removed. It is always gladdening to know that the small man in the civil service who hears on his back the large man, and, in very fact, earns the large man's salary, scores sometimes. Still sinceurism is so ancient and so respectable that it seems almost impossible that it shall die in New Zealand. Some day, .perhaps, there will be a

means devised whereby the worker in any branch of life, whether he is earning tloO a year or £ISOO, shall be

called upon to earn his salary. It is customary in New Zealand, as in most other countries which wave the democratic Hag, and where Jack is as good as his master, for there to be many

"plums" within the gift of those whose gift is the gift of the people. It therefore happens that during sessions of Parliament plums are not lacking, and those who least need fruit get it. For instance, does there seem to be any reason why a large squatter, with a very Handsome independent income, should hold a sinecure which entails desultorywork while Parliament is sitting, and for -which he gets £SOO a year? Or is there any real justice in allowing a proprietor'of a large business who has made a fortune as a land speculator to gather in £325 for a session's work when by so doing he is preventing much

better men Mho need a job from getting one? Can there be any justification in lining a telegraph boy half a day's wages for some trilling dereliction of duty

while the State p:iys a ]ar»e sinecurist like the Customs expert two salaries? Do yuu know any tiling about stock? Not at all, but you know a politician. X'ext month you will lie qualified to tell a fanner that his horses have foot-rot ind his sheep need new shoes. Are you a white-haired boy? Then why not apply for a holiday in America, seven months in England, half a year in Rotorua, free fares and a special train and steamer service? But don't, if you are a fully qualified junior with no relatives in high places, dare to ask for an extra week's holiday when your home is in Mongonui or lnvereargill. Tax the absentee landowner who lives in Australia or England, but don't interfere with the absentee sinecurist whose salary is paid by taxing the people. Xever let it be said that there is corruption in the State, because there isn't. But there is hoary customs which is synonymous. Let the private employee have every right of appeal. Keep the Arbitration Court going for him, but receive the appeals of the small civil servant in camera and tear them up if necessary. Let the above-mentioned squatter squat and earn £SOO in his spare moments, but issue a stern injunction that the poorer paid civil servant shall under no circumstance teach music, shorthand, or other arts to augment his income. Try, if possible, to prevent his wife from taking in washing or going out nursing. On the other hand, allow the outsider who has a hold on politicians to accept a nice fat billet. Also allow him to augment his income in any way he desires. Do not interfere with the liberties of the outsider who has got inside. If there is a law prohibiting civil servants from becoming members of outside bodies take no heed of it. Allow a prominent civil servant to be a Mayor of a borough, a member of the Education Board and anything else he desires to he. But if he should be a ten-shillings-a-day man, empty him out of the sendee if he dares exert any rights of citizenship. Send the factory inspector into the shop that is keeping its employees working ten minutes overtime, but don't allow him to enter the civil offices even though the gas is burning all night. Be discriminating. Do not allow small men to rise, but use a gilded fulcrum to assist the large man. If you can get the small man to do the large man's work so that the large man can go to Europe and still draw his salary to do so, hut do not permit him the iarge man's salary. Keep a strict watch on the civil servant who might write to the newspapers. Cut out everything in relation to that service. Try and get someone the sack. The man who grovels may have ten children and a sick wife. lie is the man to "go for." lie has always been the man to "go for." Custom is respectable and dies hard.