AN INEPT SYSTEM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9080, 2 May 1908, Page 4

AN INEPT SYSTEM.

Mr J. Strauchon, Commissioner of Crown Lands, has just made reference to a matter which is worthy of the consideration of the Government. Speaking, in reply to a presentation, at Wellington, on Thursday, he stated that during the period he had been connected with the Wellington office —some sis years—there had been seventeen or eighteen changes in the start'. Thin was largely attributable, to the fact that th<? men were "spotted" for their brightness and ability by firms outside, and they, received offers which induced them to leave the service of the Department. These officers had been dissatisfied with the low rate of pay in the service, and had naturally aeized the opportunities offered of bettering themselves. This loss, Mr Strauchon considered, was a matter for regret from a departmental point of view. He was quite sure, he said, if the salaries were larger the Department would have many more capable men.. There is surely something, radically wrong in a system whichi forces the. best men out of the public service to secure a reasonable remuneration. The Land Department is not the only public department in which the state of things described by Mr Strauchon occurs. The Government has starved out of its service scores of able m,en who have, on account of their ability, been quickly snapped up by outside employers, and not a few of these now hold high appointments in other parts of the Empire. Mr Strauchon admits that the Government has many dilliculties to contend with in this matter; ha" it seems penny wise and pound foolish to adhere to rules which are not elastic enough tu enable a department to pay valuable officers a sufficient return for their services to Hid country.