THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1913. THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 September 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1913. THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

In a recent issue we suggested that, for all the service it renders,to the country, the Labour Department might very well be abolished. It is an excresence that was called into existence by the discredited "Liberal" party, for no other apparent rejwfflW than to find employment for a few friends of Ministers and of members of Parliament. There @r& exceptions, of course, but in. the majority of instances ; the labour .agents, inspectors of factories, etc., have come from the ranks of that army of political hangers-ou which was identified with Liberalism all through its long and dismal reign of patronage. For the life of us we cannot see why the work of inspecting factories and enforcing the Shop Assistants Act, and Arbitration Court awards could not be isafely entrusted to the officers of the police. Nor can we see any reason why the State should set in opposa-

tion to licensed labour agents In finding servants for employers, and work for the unemployed. So far as the inspection of the accommodation for shearers is 'concerned, this might very well be undertaken by the officers of the Agricultural Department, who are constantly touring the outlying districts. We have been impressed for some time past with the fact that the Labour Department, with its expensive and extensive ramifications, is' an unnecessary appendage to our legislative machinery, while the publication of the Labour Journal, a blue-covered periodical that is seldom seen outside the newspaper offices, is a piece of gross and unwarranted extravagance. We should be glad to know from the Urime Minister, who also happens to be Minister of Labour, what excuse can ho offer for the continuation of a Department whoso functions might be readily and efficiently performed by other branches of the public service. The Premier will probably; tell us that the matter is out of his hands, and is .entirety controlled by the Public Service Commissioner. Such' a plea, if made, would in our humble opinion be quite untenable. The Government lias the power to call Departments into existence, notwithstanding tfre control of the Commissioners, and it should also possess the power to. amalgamate or abolish Departments on its own volitidn. Re that as it niay, w« are satisfied that thousands of pounds ai the public money is being thrown away on ithis Department, and it is little short of a scandal that such a state of things should be allowed to continue. ' During the last ten or fifteen years th« «ost of departmental in .the Dominion ha» alarmingly moreassd. The public service ha« assumed unwieldy proportions, and <!te taxpayer)} have been unmercifully bled to maintain a topheavy system. We have been promised of late that the Commissioners will apply tihe pruning knife, and that many of the useless branches will be lopped off. We are waiting ly for the fulfilment of that promise. So far we, have been unable to discover a disposition on the part of the Commissioners to root out those trees which occupy valuable space and bear no fruit. The responsibility for the continuation of extravagance iri the public seivice rests primarily with the Government, and we feel it* a duty to ask the Prime Minister what he inr tends doing about the Labour Department, in the first instance.