The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1888. THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2819, 10 February 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1888. THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Bitter are the complaints made of the manner in which the Government is discharging the duties of re constructing the civil service. One ground of dissatisfaction is the slow speed at which the process is heiug carried out. Many civil servants have been kept in a state of suspense for months as to whether they will be reduced or discharged. The sword of Damocles hangs over thorn and they are working in almost a state of terror, It is not too much to Bay that the civil service has to a large extent become demoralized, and that the Government, in their desire to economize have made sad blunders. They have not only protracted an operation, which in the interests of the Government and of the service should have been a speedy one, but they have also at the same time worried the service with new regulations of a stringent character, which practically place civil servants on the footing of children. We cannot help expressing some sympathy with the officers of the service who are liable to be reduced, fined and dismissed. On the other hand, the Government deserve credit for the thorough manner in whieli thoy are reducing civil service expenditure, The pruning knife is at work in both town and country, and if the work is being despatched slowly, it is being done surely, The interests of the Colony are being protected, but we cannot say much for tho manner in wliioh ihe-tliing is being done. We are not altogether surprised at this. There are plenty of men in the Colony who would reconstruct the civil service and reduce its cost, as efficiently and more gently than men like Sir Harry Atkinson and the Hon. George Fisher. We mention these two because they are to a very considerable degree the backbone of the administration. Messrs Atkinson and Fisher are hardheaded men, and they are doing their duty, but they are not sympathetic, and hence the bitterness which is manifested against them ju the Empire City. Let us hope now that the miserable work of reductions and dismissals will shortly be completed. The task might have been performed more pleasantly, but in the interests of the Colony it has had to be done, and the Assembly when it meets will no doubt commend the Ministry for what it has accomplished, though it may censure it if the work is indefinitely prolonged, or if indifference for the feelings of the victims of retrenchment is manifested by tho Ministry,