Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 24, No. 12. 1961.
[introduction]
We are very fortunate in this country that many of the senior public positions are relatively permanent and non-political. In the United States the top jobs change with every president; consequently it is six months or so before the new appointees have the knowledge and control of their jobs that their predecessors had. In the interval such incidents as the Cuban invasion and even the atomic bombing of Japan could take place because neither the President or his top team knew what reliance to place upon their various agencies and pressure groups.
In New Zealand we do not change the heads of our departments with every change of government. The new Cabinet Ministers usually have a period of grace in which to find their feet before anything occurs that really demands a "policy" decision. But our record is not good.