403
parties,
was
thoroughly abhorrent
to the bureaucratie mind. On this
point, two members of the present
staff of the Colonial
the Colonial Office, Sir R.·
Herbert and Mr. Bramston, ean
bear
me
witness.
They
will remember
that when they
were,
in 1865, serving
under me while I was Governor of Queensland, I was
very desirous
to introduce the English system of
competitive examination into that
~~.
Colony; but that they violently- opposed it, not on the pretext that
it was unsuited to Queensland,
but
C
but because they regarded it with
undisguised
aversion in
England
is now
and everywhere else. It is
generally agreed that this opposition
was
unfortunate in its results; and that if I had not been obstructed
in
my cherished plan of introducing competition,
On
the
ere
English model, into Queensland, that system would have been long adopted also in the neighbouring Colonies, and that the manifold evils and corruption of official
patronage, which have since
grown
}