HARDLY FAIR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9225, 24 June 1909, Page 4

HARDLY FAIR.

When the Masterton Borough Council recently invited applications lor the position of a clerk in the Gasworks, they received no fewer than 108 applications—a fact, it may be remarked in passing, that strikingly exemplifies the general scarcity of employment. The Gas Committee threw out 106 of the applications, and the remaining two came before the Borough Council at its meeting on Tuesday evening last. Instead of dealing with the matter, the Council, on the motion of the Mayor, referred the question for decision back to the Gas Committee, aud that is how the applications stand at present. But there is more in the position than meets the eye, as the phrase goes. It is current conversation that a local applicant, whose qualifications are really in excess of those defined in connection with the position, is one of the remaining two, but though there is every reason why he should be appointed, the Ga3 Committee have not spacially recommended him, while it is rumoured that they favour the application ?of one not personally known to them. We certainly do not believe in a parochial policy in any respect, but it is hardly fair to reject local applicants on the only ground, presumably, that they ara favourably known locally, or is it suggesetd that their qualifications should be superior and more extensive than those defined as being necessary for the position? Whenever it is reasonable and proper local applicants should be appointed to positions of Borough employment in preference to those applying from other parts nf the Dominion. There is nothing narrow-minded in our suggestion --it is simply a plea for fair treatment of the local labour market at the hands of the Borough Council. The work of the "reform parly" is evidently not yet over.