LOCAL BODY SERVICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 26 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL BODY SERVICE.

The distracted section ;>[ tib« Op)*.;-!-tion press of this is fiudhn-: f»u}!t with Mr iMass*?/ hwJvii** tho latter has auggest&u t.Jki !• thert: should bo soma modified /oWijf of Imperial recognition to those'gentlemen who aro rendering yeoman h->_vrvieo to their oountry pn the vaiious local bodies. These howsjp&pers forged that it w% the Liber*l Administrations which first churned Imperial recognition for public sonrants. Insteac.however, of securing that recognitior for men who hars spent many y,-a;. of their lives, and have (sacrifices much of their home comforts, in the administering of the slovonly-oon-etruoted enactments compiled by men who considered themselves underpaid at £3OO ifor five or eix months work,"; these "friends of tho working classes'? obtained distinction far Civil Servants who were drawing fat salaries and living in luxury in the large centres of the Dominion.. Insteiad of en oouraging men to derote themselves to publio service, the Liberal Administrations offered <an insult to those engaged in local body work by making them sign a docf.aration before a Justice of tho Peace that their bar." travelling expenses were properly ir curred. Instead of granting Commissions of the Peaoe (which, at the most, are only feeble honours) to men who had rendered eerrice to the Stat on the more important local bodies these Liberals heaped the "honours" upon political hangers-on and t v * hunters. And it now remains for newspapers which were dumb under s'uoh degrading conditions to 'hold M-~ Massey up to ridicule because he sug geste that, if there is to be any - T,_ per-iaC. recognition (other than , km £?IH hood) it Should be for those wlio havf served their fellownitizeais with™fee or reward. Could a> more humiliating position b? taken tip bv a newspaper press that claims to maintar the dignity and honour of the community ? „ ■ wasEvr" ~