The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1912. PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 87, 29 August 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1912. PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM.

Mr. A. L. Herdman haa at last come into liis own. For years lie has battled as a private member for a reform of the Civil Service, and the Bill dealing with the subject has been as hardy a perennial as the Referendum and Elective Executive Bills. There was a time when Sir William Steward was happily christened the ornitliorhynchus, which the dictionary defines as "a beast with a bill," in view of his annual attempts as a member to place some measure bearing his name upon the Statute Book. Mr. Herdman, of late years, lias bidden fair to wrest the title from liim, and now, iu bis newly-won Ministerial capacity, his pet child bids fair to be adopted into the statutory fold. Although the Public Service Bill, which was introduced in the House on Saturday, is not actually his Bill, it follows very closely upon the lines of the measure he lias advocated, in season and out of season, for many years in the House. The Bill, which is one of the Government's earliest policy measures, will be received with general approval. The details of his measure were exhaustively set forth in our issue of yesterday, and it is not necessary to follow them again line upon line and precept upon precept. It provides, briefly, for a chief commissioner and two sub-commissioners, whose duty it will be to undertake a general supervision of the public service, under the revisory traversation of Parliament, where its main essentials are concerned. It will be the duty of these heads to recommend promotions and transfers, and increases of salaries, and to generally watch the detail of the service, so that the best men may be found in the best places, irrespective of length of service, or influence, or any of the rule of thumb rules that have hitherto, to a great extent, influenced these matters. The abominable habit of

touting lor political patronage is elimi-. I nated, by making it a cause of disqualify S cation if any candidate for an ment in the service approaches a member of Parliament, with a view to logrolling himself into office or otherwise attempting to climb into the service by. the ladder of political patronage. Nothing will give both the House and the service greater satisfaction than to see this desirable reform effected, for it would give every candidate an equal chance where promotion in the servico is concerned, and would eliminate altogether the element of political graft which lias, in the past, so seriously affected the calibre of the service. Should the Bill become law it will secure a recognition of ability and expert education as against length of service and political "pull." This is as it should be, for the old proverb that "there is always loom at the top," has a nasty habit of becoming distinctly inutile where the plodding climber is liable to be kicked down several rungs by someone who has climbed over his head simply because his credentials disclose that he hi a fourth cousin twice removed of the wife of the man who looks after the gardener's cow of the aunt of the grandfather of the member for Waididdidyoudodoit. Merit and ability are always the. keystones of the arch' of successful administration, ] but this fact has not been rigorously enough recognised in the past. Promotion by seniority instead of by personal aptitude is an anomaly in the public serffee—and indeed in any other service —which should never have existed, and if some precocious baby of five should display the better administrative capacity there is absolutely no logical reason why his doddering old father of 25 should not be found acting as doorkeeper to his estimable progeny. The Bill provides plenty of safeguards for a judicious administration of its sug- ) gestions, and if it succeeds in wiping out the elements of graft and the system which has whiskers upon its theory of seniores priores it will have well earned a place upon the Statute Book. It is, of course, capable of some amendment, but it should emerge from the House in such a form as to make it a practical solution of a very glaring problem in public service reform.