THE CIVIL SERVICE DAMOCLES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 167, 24 November 1883, Page 3

THE CIVIL SERVICE DAMOCLES.

When Damocles, the sycophant of Dionysius r the tyrant of Syracuse, coveted the splendours and luxuries of his patron, he was invited to a > sumptuous banquet, and overhead was a sword susjjended by a single hair. No wonder that the banquet was a tantalising torment, and that Damocles had no appetite for the dainty dishes that were set before him. The tradition is typical of the risk that attends greatness and high rank. ' The sword of public opinion is often suspendecl ' by as frail a thread as that which held the weapon above the sycophant of Dionysius.

The Damocles' sword of New Zealand is the. • Civil Service. Ministers may rule the country, • but the Civil Service rules the Ministry. The now Minister who has not been blessod with, departmental experience is completely at the mercy of his under-secretaries and heads •of departments. When Vogel's Ministry was in articulo mortis he made every clerk in the Treasury, from Batkin down to the messenger , and sweeper-out, his sworn henchrc^, by sub r stituting increased salaries for overtime. Then, of course, there was no more overtime. . . The clevks always got off their stools when the clock pointed with mathematical precision to four o'clock. The Treasurer who succeeded Yogel had advocated retrenchment, and he was regarded as the sworn enemy' not; only of the Treasury clerks, but the whole Civil Serviced No bne dared to disobey his *

behests ; but>there pre^niore! ways than one of killing a cat. When he wanted any particular return or information, unless he could specify the

precise alphabetical letter and number, he got iSOitiefcbing else. When he wanted A.B. No. £§Bi,£ without namifig it, they piled up hi 3 table Wifclisome hundreds of the A.B. series, but not ;the one he wanted. That the poor man was not driven into a, lunatic asylum was only owing to ibis strength of mind.

• t • Now we learn through 5 * the Timaru Herald, Viiion, is edited by an old Civil Servant, and a relative of existing members of thf Civil Service, •that the officials in Wellington have been setting themselves up as a self : constituted tribunal to judge the fitness of Ministerial appointments. . -"They' could not say out all they felt," by which he means that they dare not, but they " considered it a gross outrage and a gross injustice to place over their head a man who was never heard of till yesterday"; they " bitterly complained that it was turning the whole thing ifcto a farce, and .ao forth. This is about as gigantic a specianen of official impudence as we have ever aeen iip New Zealand. It. means, if it means.anything >.at all, that the officials are superior to the Parlia- ,. xcent of. the country and- the. united wisdom of the people — that, in fact, the servant is above his master; The consummate cheek, of the thing ; almost reaches the .sublime. Of course, the logical ; deduction is that in future, when there is any difficulty.about allotting a portfolio, the only .'_ to. be done is to drag out a smirking, selfV>«ufficient quill-driver from the Government '? Buildings, elevate him to the Upper House, aud make him a Minister out of hand. Christopher ■Sly'a astonishment, when he awoke and found himself in an unwonted sphere of luxury, would be reproduced on a grander scale* It is about 'time New Zealand got. a, Minister who could put the curb on this unbridled impudence and insubordination of the Civil servants in Wellington, and reduce them to something approaching to decent respect for their superiors.

Mr Mitchelson may not be gifted with the administrative grasp of a Palmerstonorthe eloquence of a Burke, but we venture to predict that he *&11 prove himself quite as capable and useful as -the majority of his predecessors in office. If the lack of departmental experience were to be considered a bar to, a Ministerial appointment, noone ! tout "a Tite Barnacle or a pensioner would fee" eligible. What previous experience had Dick, Johnson, Oliver, or Connolly ? What experience Lad. Mr Bryce, of the Native Department, when at a single bound he became one of the most successful and economic Native Ministers the Colony lias ever had ? Bah ! This Civil Service presumption is simply nauseating, and wants sitting on.