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A CIVIL SERVICE DIFFICULTY.
-4-t
THE COMMISSIONER A ND PERMANENT
HEAD:.
CONFERENCES ABANDONED.
In the courns of his fifth annual report,
which was presented to Parliament yester
day, the Public Service Commissioner re
marks:
Two quarterly conferences were held with
ezcelent results. Public Service matters
were discussed freely and without restraint,
and some very good work was done. The
Commissioner naturally welcomed the assist
ance of his old colleagues, who were at one
time his fellow permanent heads, and they
Sin their curn were glad to meet and discuss
the many questions which naturally arise
in administering a large and complicated
service. The Commissioner's attitude to
wards the conferences may be gathered from
the fact that he voluntarily suggested and
undertook to convey any resolution passed,
although he might disagree with it, to the
Premier for his information, provided it
was Supported by a reasonable majority.
The Commissioner, however, with much
re ret decided to discontinue the confer
ences during the Under-Secretary's tMr. F.
D. North. tJ..G.) term of office as the ac
tive President of the Civil Service Associa
tion. The position was the subject of com
ment by more than one of the members of
the conferences. The Commissioner gathered
there existed a danger of losing the freo ex
press?on of views which eharacterised the first
meetings, and rather than run the risk of
allowing any feeling of reserve to creep into
the conferences which mi-ht be difficult sub
sequently to eradicate, he thought it wise
to temporarily suspend them. They will,
however. be resumed when Mr. North's
term of office as president of the Association
expires. The Commissioner was very loth to
discontinue them and did not finally decide
to do so until February last. when the pre
sident delivered a speech which made it im
possible tor the Commissioner to welcome
him to a conference in his dual capacity of
adviser to the Crown and also adviser to the
Civil Service Association, with full access to
the inner counsels of both. The speech al
luded to was reported fully in the "West
Australian" of January 29, 1910. and subse
quently m the "Civil Service Journal" for
February, 1910, and inter alia the following
words were reported in both journals as
having been spoken by the president:-"It
has been brought under the notice of the
Association that, in addition to tho Govern
ment, they also have to consider the
Public Service Commissioner. That gentle.
man had not put that sympathetic construc
tion on the Act and on some of his regula
tions-(laughter)-which he, the speaker,
thought the service had every right to
expect, and although it had been the policy
of the Association to support the Commis
sioner in the past. many of the members
of the Council. and no doubt the Associa
tiou believe that his actions and motives
required to be watched occasionally. One
of the duties, therefore, of the Council
during the neat twelve months would be
to remind the Commissioner of some of his
obligations. tApp!nae.)"
Seeing that the Public Service regulations
alluded to were framed by the Committee
of which Mr. North was a member, anl
seeing that the interpretation of them is
a matter which the Conference often con
Identially discussed, the Conmissioser
thought it unreasonable that Mr. North
should be in the inner counsels of both
the Commissioner and the permanent head
and the Executive of the Association, and
therefore out of respect to the feelings
of the other permanent head., and in de
feteace to his own views, the Commissioner I
has not called the Conference together this
year.
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