and the taxpayers, and said that reductions or dismissals were made in the same haphazard method as appointments and promotions had been made in former times.
They complained—it must be admitted very justly—that it was not they who had landed the colony in its deplorable condition. They asserted, indeed, that if the advice of the heads of the departments had been followed, thousands of pounds would have been saved every year. Their conduct on the whole had been exemplary, and they saw no reason why Governments and Parliaments should fall upon them and punish them with cruel severity for things that they had never done. Year after year at each session of Parliament there began a reign of terror for them, and it was time, they said, that the service, which was debarred from the ordinary means of defence against attack, should do something for itself, so it formed the Public Service Association.[1]
The reduction of the audit vote was really a defeat of the Government by two votes, but as it was not taken as a no-confidence question, the House continued to deal with the estimates, Mr. Seddon, Mr. Ballance, Mr. W. P. Reeves, and other prominent Liberals criticising almost every item and showing that nothing would be allowed to pass unless the money asked for was absolutely necessary.
- ↑ The objects of this Association were:—
To unite the whole public service throughout the colony in the bonds of an association by which its interests can at all times, and under all circumstances, be judiciously and wisely considered and advanced; to establish an organisation by means of which the voice of the service can be expressed; to promote a competent and acknowledged authority to pronounce the opinions of the whole service upon every matter affecting it, and to provide means also for the full discussion before settlement of all such questions; to vindicate the rights of the service and uphold its claims; to disseminate a better conception of the work of the public service; to promulgate the uncontested opinions of statesmen of all ages that a country which does not respect and fairly treat its public services, opens the door to maladministration and corruption and saps at the root of that energy, zeal, and high standard of performance of duty without which no country can be well served or well governed; to urge that the record of the public service of New Zealand has been such as to give no cause for detraction; to claim that the public service of the colony should open a well-assured and honourable career, and that the attainment of distinction therein by long and faithful duty is deserving of at least as much honour and reward as are accorded to those who become eminent in any other profession; to obtain recognition of the principle that there is no
