SCATHING INDICTMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 254, 6 April 1915, Page 2

SCATHING INDICTMENT.

" RED TAPE COMMISSIONERS."

MR-. PRIMROSE McCONNELL SPEAKS OUT.

Auckland, April 2. Thn Thn outspoken criticism of tlio Public Ser.viee Commissioner* by Mr. Primrose McDonnell, who has resigned his position as manager of the Haukii.-u State Farm to take over tile management of the Dihvorth Estate, has caused a great (leal of comment. His remarks were made at a picnic held in his honor at the farm, and were listened to and warmly applauded by the large gathering of farmers and others. Til his position, said Mr. MeConnell, lie did not expect to be allowed to ignore all authority. But it wfts the small petty interference, often hearing the stamp of gross ignorance, that was so irksome to anyone who knew his work, and who possessed tile slightest atom of grit. It was such foolishness that led to stagnation and worse. !Two years ago the Pub!j e Service Commissioners were unearthed with a flourish of trumpets, and one of the first things they did was to condemn absolutely the organisation of the Department of 'Agriculture. Naturally, they expc«ted that the Civil Service millennium had arrived. Two veirs had passed, and what were the results? What once could be described as mild cosmos had been reduced to chaos, and no one seemed to fcnow exactly where they were treading, excepting that it was undoubtedly to the rca r.

But the Commissioners had worked hard. They had issued new rules by the bushel, and blue, green and red forms, he thought, bv' the million. His auditors would scarcely credit it, when he told them that an experimental farm manager was not supposed to engage a temporary employee, and could not increase a farm hand's wages, even by one penny a day, without first consulting the Commissioners. Could they believe that red-tape could be carried to such an extreme?

Tim Commissioner, in the first place, knew absolutely nothing about farming—would not know the difference between a swede turnip and a Cheshire cheese if lie met them. ITc •mew absolutely nothing of the merits of a num. who applied for 'an increase of waies. H<wv could he, when Tie lived -inn miles away? The fact of the matfor was that red-tape "was ten times cleaver to the soul of the Commissioner than any amount of efficiency and progress. Those were only two of the manv ridiculous rules which were intolerable to any manager possessing the spirit of a fly. What was a manager appointed for? Was he to be the too! and plavthing of hide-bound fossils, who v. erj* rapidly making the farm division of the De'iarl metit of Agriculture a Inugliiilff-stoek? Would any farmer pvesent, dare to parry on the management of his own farm under such intolerable conditions? Tbev wren'> insult. In anv man who knew his work. But he tk confidently expecting that the Board of Agriculture would eradicate many of the evils that at present existed in the department, and it had certain-' Iv a r:ire opportunity of making its

Tlis whole obieet, declared Mr MCouncil, in brimrin.'v this to light, was th<if it miidit benefit his successor and ofher officers of the "Department. of Agriculture. and lie felt all would agree with him that it was time that such foolishness On the other hand, ho *;iid, he was looking forward to a We. of still propter usefulness to the f""'icnltnral world hecmise he expected freedom from departmental worries, incompetent meddler*, and intolerable red-tape.