"Pull" in the Public Service..

To hear some Government supporters talk one would think that a Public Service Board had never been heard of outside New South Wales. As a matter of fact such Boards are at work in Great Britain, in Canada, and in India. Before long, we believe, New Zealand will also be included in the number. The present system, as the Leader of the Opposition recently declared in the House, is demoralising in the extreme. It is demoralising to the public service itself, to the country, and to Parliament. Everyone know of members who, as Mr. Massey said, "have gone on the platform at the end of their three years' term or during the recess, and have had the hardihood to boast to their constituents of the number of appointments they have been able to secure in respect to the public service." And we know, too, of men, who count themselves honest and upright, whose votes have been bought by the appointment of a relative to a Government billet on the recommendation of some member of the House.

"I should like to see a return," remarked Mr. Massey in the same speech, "showing the number of relatives and connections of members of Parliament who are at present in the public service of this country. I am given to understand, on really good authority, there are members of Parliament at the present time who have no less than five sons and daughters in the public service. How can these men be independent? I should like to know," he continued. "how many relatives and connections of Ministers there are in the public service at the present time. I am glad to have this opportunity of saying to Ministers, across the floor of this House, there is too much of the 'reigning family' element in connection with the Government of this country, and if there had been less of the 'reigning family 'there would have been less friction than we have had during the last few weeks. I want to see a system such as was advocated by the member for Mount Ida, where the son or daughter of the wharf labourer who works for a shilling an hour will have exactly the same opportunity, other things being equal, in competing for appointments to the public service of the colony as the son or daughter of a Minister of the Crown. That is a long way from being the position in this colony at the present time."