Civil Service Reform.

We did not overlook this question. The Civil Service Reform Bill which I introduced was to be the first step towards a true and permanent reform of the Civil Service, Now, I will undertake to say that there is hardly any person in this hall who has taken any interest in politics who has not continually heard of Civil Service reform for the last ten years in New Zealand, and yet nothing was done. Our Bill has been the first attempt to put it on a permanent footing. Let me tell you what the Bill proposes to do. The Bill proposes to do this : It provides that the only avenue to the civil service shall be by cadetships; that is, we were to take in young people—and we were not to exclude girls, even if they were suitable—we were to take young people into the Civil Service, and we were also, as the new regulations will show, so to frame the entrance examination as to make it competitive. I think that wag a mistake. I wish to see the principle applied to the Civil Service in New Zealand that has been applied, for example, to the Civil Service in the United States : That each representative of a district should have one nomination, and as soon as every other member had a nomination his turn would come round again. This would have ensured that you would have got a Civil Service from all over the colony. But by leaving it to competition this may happen : that those districts that have had the best schools and the best educational advantages in the past may be able to send np and get all the prizes. That I thought was unfair, and I, therefore, wanted the examination not to be too stiff and at the same time give the members the nomination. However I was defeated, and it is put now on a competitive basis, and being put on a competitive basis we have only to hold examinations once a year, because the openings to the Civil Service are few. We have also to provide for this: There are some experts required in the Service and you cannot get them from the ranks. For instance we may require a navigator, a doctor, a lawyer or accountant-men with special knowledge and you must go out side of the Service to get them. But as I said, in establishing a Civil Service you must begin with cadets. It will tend to make your service cheaper, and it will tend to destroy Ministerial patrenage. For what has happened in that respect? I do not say that one Government is to be blamed more than another. Political pressure may have influenced all Governments. I am not stating that one Government is immaculate more than another; I am not [unclear: calling] any slur on any Government. This is what has happened to all Governments. They have often had to put in the service, perhaps over the heads of others, men of no particular occupation, and who perhaps had not much [unclear: clam upto] the colony at all. All that will be put an end to, and you will possibly have a cheaper service. Well, we have tried to do what we can to amalgamate offices, and we are now trying to [unclear: continue] together departments, so that an officer in one department, say in the Post-office or Customs, and so on, may in small districts be able to do the work for three or four departments without getting extra pay for it. In that way we hope to cheapen the service. We hope to be able to show a large saving in the expense of the service. You can expect no large saving in the service if each outlying district demands. page 24 every convenience that is needed in populous districts. The root of economy lies here. If the people wish cheap government they must get the Government to do less for them than it is doing now. It is all nonsense fot the people to say—"We want economy in government, and at the same time we insist on the Government doing as much for us in the future as in the past." (A voice : Let the Government tender for it.) I am afraid you would have very little chance. (Laughter.) You cannot expect cheap government if you wish all the conveniences of what may be termed the most civilised community, and I quite agree with what has been said by more than one speaker in other places; that the fact is the Government of New Zealand has done and does really more for the people, especially within outlying districts, than the Government of other colonies, the Government of England, or the Government of the United States; and so long as the people, having been accustomed to thes requirements demand them, you cannot expect the expense of your Government to be much reduced. However, I give this pledge : that we have reduced expenditure; we have amalgamated many offices, and we will have perhaps still to consider how further amalgamations and retrenchment must take place, because we do not wish to see, more than we can help, any additional taxation put upon the people at the present time. Because we recognise that with the price of produce and the difficulties the small settlers and manufacturers have to contend with, that they are not in a position in which we can call upon them for further taxation—for more taxation than is absolutely necessary for the wants of the community. And I feel sure that in this colony, as in other colonies, when the people of the colony see that further taxation is required to fulfil the obligations of the Government, they will do as their fathers have done, and as they have done in the past—they will be only too ready to give all assistance in that direction to any Government that may be in office—(Loud Cheers.)