The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1914. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONERS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 40, 8 July 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1914. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONERS

'I liese seems to be no question as to the success of tile experiment of appointing a commissioner to control the Civil Service. It is still early to pass judgment on the work for which this important body was brought into existence, but judged by the results already obtained, the Commissioners have certainly fully justified their appointment. Leaving out of consideration' the question of patronage anil dealing- merely with tho work of reform in the methods of departmental work, the economies ell'ectod bear ample testimony to the administrative abilities and painstaking inquiries of the Commissioners. In a complicated machine like the Civil Service, the greatest care and soundest judgment were required in the pressing out and re-arranging of the officers a? to obtain efficiency and economy. Anything approaching to a rash attempt at remodelling the service by a stroke ot the pen would only have brought about a more chaotic state of affairs tuan already existed, so that necessarily considerable time had to be spent over careful investigations that prudence demanded should precede re-arrangements and that were equally necessary" to prevent, or at least to minimise friction. How conscientiously and effectively the Commissioners have worked is manifest by the report which has lately been published. There has been no upheaval. and what little passive resistance was encountered has 'been tactfully overcome and the Commissioners are entitled to claim that there has been a marked improvement in the efficiency, and that this improvement continues, the large majority of civil servants having loyally and even enthusiastically -supported the new system. They rreognise that some allowance must be made for the aversion to improvements by the, men of mature years who have spent the greater part of their lives in a groove, where slow and ponderous methods were the rule, in some departments and seeming paralysis in others, but the Commissioners steadily persevered in their work of introducing labor-saving appliances, preventing over-lapping, and securing a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. One great lesson lias been impressed on the members of the service, namely, that time is money, and it is gratifying to find that the introduction of labor-saving devices lias so far resulted in a saving ot £15,000 a year, and when the system is fully developed, the beneficial results will be far greater. , fn his previous report, the Commissioner anticipated that the economies carried out would total £47,000 a year, but it is now estimated that a further £20,000 may be anticipated from re-distribution, reduction, and re-arrangement of the stall', and the introduction of other economies, fn addition to this, a further £4500 :s in sight in connection with improvements in the Post and Telegraph Department. Within two years it is considered that there will have been effected a saving of at least £05,000. ( a year. The system of advertising vacant positions has been found to answer satisfactorily, 2401 applications baring been received last year. It was well-known that the lilectoral Department was very expensively worked, so that it ii not surprising to find that the Commissioners have abolished that department, which has been transferred to the control of the department of Internal Affairs, whereby a saving of €3OOO is anticipated. The purging of the roils is now to 'be done bv postmasters, lettercarriers. and the police, and it is considered "the work will be more efficiently performed than when '.c was performed by the lilectoral Department, In striking contrast to the old conditions whieh prevailed in the service whereby suggestions for improvements were rigorously repressed, the Commissioners gracefully acknowledge their indebtedness iiir the large number of responses to their invitation for these suggestions which show that at heart the service is sound and that the men take a lively interest in their work. On the whole, the public have very gooil cause for satisfaction at the result of the Commissioners' labors. There i* still much to be done, ami there 1, much force and sound reason in tin dictum of these Civil Service reformers that the highest efficiency is rapidly no tained by improvement from above than from below.