Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1895. SPOILS TO THE VICTORS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4980, 20 March 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1895. SPOILS TO THE VICTORS.

MIXISTKHS have nmdo whips to scourge themselves, and \vc do not altogether pity them when we read in the New Zealand Times that young ladies who are ambitions of obtaining appointments as telephone exchange cadettes may be interested to learn that 700 applications are already in for any vacancies that may occur. The Minister who has supervision of this department (the Hon. Mr Oadman) lives in daily dread that a vacancy may bo roportod, for nearly oyery time a vacancy is mado the great majority of the 700 would-be candidates want to know why their applications have not been considered, and of course their letters havo to be duly answered, In the Railway Department also 100 applications have been made for appointments since the Government took over tlio administration from the Commissioners, In theory, appointments in the public service, are made in accordance with certain fixed rules, but in practice they are occasionally determined by the favour of Ministers. It follows, therefore, that applicants for positions under the Government depend upon tlio favour of Ministers rather than on the regulations. For example, a large majority of the seven hundred young ladies who are awaiting employment in tlio telephone sevvioe wpnkl faj?o their names off the list at onoe if a vacancy were certain to bo filled according'to regulation viz., that the first qualified persons on the list >vptild bo appointed, but with tlio element of patronage introduced by the present Ministry it follows that the Inst on the list may havo as good a chance as the first. Under the regulations not ton out of the seven hundred could hope for a billet, under patronage every applicant has a chance, who can bring personal or political influence to bear on a Minister. If hundreds of charming young ladies either personally or through their friends, call upon Mr Cadman,'snd if scores of the male sex worry Mr Seddon for bijlets, ought we to sympathise with eithgr tlio one or the other, A righteous retribution is overtaking them, for instituting a Ministerial policy by lyhich the jpjtprests of the Cojqny have become subordinated t<> jjlie •welfare pf j?srtjy. Of course at ;

first the path of the transgressor may have been easy, A Minister may lmvo selected a good Liberal for a position to which he aspired and turned a bad Conservative away,but when it came to be known that "colour" was the open sesame to Government favours, a somewhat uudue competition for them sprang up. Ministers had no longer to decide between the claims of a Liberal and of a Conservative, but between the demands of a score of Liberals, In making an appointmeut now, Ministers please one and offend twenty. There is no gain in this, neither is there any profit or pleasure in having to say no to seven hundred young feminine officeseekers. Ministers are beginning at last to learn that a Nemesis follows upon even political turpitude.