THE CIVIL SERVICE.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 447, 30 March 1875, Page 2

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

The ' Otago Daily Times ' wrrfes s& follows :— We always feel grateful to anyone who tries to disabuse tho ordinary parental inin4 of its untrue notions about the Civil Service. From, time to time someone who is capable of-missing the undoubted facts of the subject, and successfully generalizing upon them, does succeed in drawing attention to the delusion which forms the stock-in-trade of that gigantic swindle — -the Government Service. As a resource for budding boys, as an answer to the question, what shall we do with our lads, service of the State is not uncommonly regarded as " the great good," the sure recompense of an education above the -common. So gently does it steal in upon -the peternal mind, with such insidious approach do& ifrjpay its addresses, that we are not surprised to find -t^at nine out of every ten parents regard a Jbillet in the Government Service as a svtay treasure as affording (to their boy .he entrance if^to life which Jie needed, securing his^positioh and rendering him, independent. To tbow who have examined a little more deeply into \kk matter, it has, long been apparent that to put a boy with any' brains a'tjill

into the Government Bervice is to consigft him to a" sort of civil death — to^juiakj? Mm asug^le^a member of society as can be^^in^p<Cpt ua seS*wh:it a Government olerkahij^jSfansSC iTirst, of course, there is.& fair, indeed^ ©pia'siderablp rskte^Wyny for a begim&g. A^frfel^anfc's apprentice clerk gets nothihg- or iOs per weefo- whild thje Government lad geta^Sa^er wdek-— we beg his pardon,v,£7s per annum: it jk more aristocratic to count it Jby the year. TFhen the hours are easy and the nightwork next to nothing. To go home with hivfhands in his pockets at half-past Four, being a free nlan with nothing on earth to do, is certainly a desideratum to most yjcmng fellows. And then it is * such an eminently aristocratic occupation ; the aroma of the Diplomatic and Civil Service at Home hangs round I the Colonial imitation. That service, with dukesl for its fyeadf earls for its officers, and even simple knights for its chief clerks, has given a polite tinge to the service of Government, even in Honolulu and Fiji, much more in New Zealand. The immediate profit, the tempting idleness, the want of all push and vigor other than pushing a private interest and vigoi'ously trying to make a private party, is tempting in the extreme to the indolent and indiffeient among the young men. --^Mr Simmons, with very great foree r lamented!^^ effects upon his school of the habit of .continu^ly taking the older boys away, and putting them into* the Civil Sarvice. With characteristic ftenetflfction he puts his finger upon the weak c spot, th^all-^rerailing motive which led- parents to do this, "^toys really 6attening their noses against the window panes in the Government offices in Wellington, because they think it more gentlemanly to be doing this than weighing out raisvns or roiling up fleeces. It is very sad, very degrading, indeed to our self-respect as a community, but we must acknowledge the painful fact. The time is evidently far off in Otago at least when " it will depend upon a man's culture whether he .has a right to the iitle" ( of gentleman).