Part 02: [Correspondence relative to George William Rusden's resignation of his office as clerk of the Executive Council of Victoria] / George William Rusden

Public Service

of

Victoria

This page is blank

(NOT FOR PUBLICATION)

13th January, 1860

MY DEAR SIR — In accordance with my promise, I beg to hand you a printed copy of the correspondence which took place between myself and the Chief Secretary in your name in 1856. At present it is not for publication, though hereafter, if I live, it may furnish an instructive chapter as to what a public officer might encounter in doing his duty in Victoria in 1856. Meantime I present it to yourself and a few friends. I append a few notes to the letters, to explain how they bear upon the facts, and how they are connected together. I also prefix my rider to the Civil Service Report of 1856, because I was informed that in consequence of that rider Mr Haines, and one or two of his colleagues, came to the determination to act as the correspondence I send you shows that they did act towards me. Yours faithfully, G. W. RUSDEN Major-General Macarthur, &c.

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23rd August 1856

MY DEAR SIR — I have been thinking a good deal of the Board of the Civil Service of which you spoke to me yesterday, and I am quite unable to see that I could render any efficient service to the public on the Board, and would beg therefore respectifully to decline the honor of A

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being placed upon it. I do so from no desire to avoid individual labor, which I am quite ready to devote on the subject in question, or on any other, in or out of office hours; but from a conviction that my appointment to the Board in question, as shown on paper to me (i.e., Mr. Rusden, Captain Kay, Mr. Dryburgh), would fail to be useful. Yours truly, G. W. RUSDEN.

The Hon. W. C. Haines.

Note, 19th January, 1860. — I consented afterwards to act on condition of Professor Hearn being added and made chairman.

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G B 1333 Chief Secretary's Office, Melbourne, 8th September, 1856.

SIR —

I have the honor to inform you that His Excellency the Officer administering the Government has been pleased to appoint you to be a member of a Board to inquire into the arrangements which may appear desirable for better organising the permanent Civil Service of the colony. Chairman —Professor Hearn ; members — Captain Kay, R.N. ; G.W. Rusden, Esq. ; Thomas Dryburgh, Esq. Mr W. R. Stephen, secretary. I have now the honor to explain to you the points to which it is His Excellency's wish that your enquires may be directed. 1—As to first appointments—From what classes officer of the Civil Service should be selected ; whether any, and if so what, training or probation previous to appointment should be required ; and whether any, and if so what, system of examination should be established. 2—As to promotion—How far it should depend upon merit, and how far upon seniority ; and in what manner comparative merit should be ascertained. 3—As to classification—What classes shoudl be established, and at what rates of salary. 4—Whether a separate class of copying clerks should be established. 5—Whether any, and if so what, rules for superannuation should be laid down. In naming these heads, His Excellency by no means wishes to confine your attention to them ; on the contrary he would be happy

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to receive any suggestions bearing on the general question which you may deem it advisable to offer.

In conclusion, I would say that your report will be considered confidential, and should be forwarded to me for the purpose of being laid before His Excellency in Council. I have the honor, &c. J. MOORE,

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I do not think that the report goes sufficiently into the consideration of the higher branches of the permanent Civil Service, and I beg most respectfully to assign to your Excellency the following reasons for my opinion:-

It is true that the instructions under which the Board was appointed relate specifically to the permanent Civil Service, and might therefore be held to exclude any consideration of the working of the chief Ministerial Departments ; yet, as I am of the opinion that the permanent service cannot be satisfactorily organised, except under an altered system of connection with the Ministerial Departments, I feel bound to express that opinion.

The transition from one form of government to another is necessarily a complicated process, requiring well-matured deliberation ; and it cannot but be expected that in giving effect to that transition, those who take part by counsel or in action may fail in some measure to appreciate the extent to which for the general good the Permanent Service should be distinct from the great ministerial and political offices, and may err in advising or disposing as to the connection which ought to subsist between that which is permanent and that which is fleeting.

I cannot hope to avoid the errors to which I advert, therefore I submit the following remarks with the diffidence which should be inseparable from an attempt to deal with a subject of public importance ; but with the confidence which is equally inseparable from a feeling that I am performing a public duty to the best of my ability.

If the ministerial arrangements contemplated or permitted under the New Constitution were, in my opinion, such as to trench in no manner upon the free working of the permanent service, I should have been spared the necessity of attaching this rider to the report ; but, as it seems to me that the conduct of public business will be greatly prejudiced by persistence in the arrangements extant, or supposed to be extant in New South Wales and Victoria, no motives of personal compunction ought to be allowed to qualify the A2