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May 9, 1895.1
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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in China has reached a pitch unknown in not overmanned nor overpaid; that it is than to speculate on what inay happen any other
country, and the misgovernment is grievous, but it may be doubted whether
efficient, and that political patronage has in the Australian colony, and we may ven- "not been exercised. The Commissioners ture to make one more extract, which, though there is not greater personal freedom in China than in Russia.
can only conjecture that gentlemen so it may seem perhaps a comparatively trivial As for Japanese "testifying are either ill-informed or despotism, the mild paternal rule of the
are matter of detail, has a very direct bearing MIKADO is further tempered by the repre-
"insensible to the nature and gravity of on the efficiency of the service.
the inquiry." sententative institutions granted by His tion that the Civil Service of New South Wales penned with direct reference to Hongkong:
There is a popular assump- following remarks might have Majesty, and was never at any time to be is both over-manned and overpaid; that compared with the despotic government of it includes a number of incompetent or
"We may here make a general statement, the CZAR. It is not the tyranny of the inefficient officers; that its modes of pro-
applicable almost without exception to the Government in China that is so oppressive cedure are more or less antiquated; that the
whole of the departments, and that is, that as the pervading influence of the official economical and rapid depatch of public
the office premises are so constructed that squeeze, which strangles all enterprise, business
a proper supervision is impossible, and condemns the people to live in sordid favouritism prevails in many quarters, and "utilised to the best advantage. It is com- main object; that "that the accommodation available is not squalor, and taints the fountain from that it is a means of providing employment "mon to find a number of separate rooms, in which justice should flow, perverting it for relatives and friends of political adherents." each of which there are only one or two into an engine of fraud and tyranny. The Commissioners' opinion on this subject "officers, and to find tables used where China is now, thanks to Japan, helpless is as follows:-" After the best examination for offence; even her few old yellow fangs"
"deaks ought to be employed. In the Chief we have been able to make of the system, have been drawn; she is powerless to
Secretary's office the chief clerk, who pre- we have come to the conclusion that, while do any mischief save to trade and her own
sumably ought to exercise supervision over the service has many admirable features, "the general staff, occupies a separate people; and it should be the business of the "and contains officers as high-minded, as
"room." Treaty Powers to prevent ber from opposing "able, and as patriotic as perhaps can be be useful to recall the passage in the re- In this connection, too, it might obstacles to the expansion of native indus."found anywhere, the assumption above port of the Hongkong Retrenchment Com- tries and commerce with foreign countries." referred to is not without justification. mittee in which they say:-"Every officer Let China be opened up at the dictation "The evidence we have taken proves that the of the Treaty Powers, the construction
should be required to give honestly his "Civil Service of the colony could be effi- of railways by foreign capital be per-"ciently conducted with a much smaller staff
'six hours' work a day, and if it be thought mitted, the imposition of lekin on foreign
necessary to grant time in the day for "than is now employed; that salaries and goods prohibited and some light payment
“luncheon, that time should be made up by "wages generally are on a much more liberal to the provincial Government. at port of "scale than is paid for equally responsible present." Nothing, we believe, has been the office hours being fixed earlier than at entry in addition to the customs duties be
"work outside; that, owing to the system done in the direction of carrying out this substituted therefor. But there should be of promotion by seniority rather than by recommendation and four-and-a-half or five no protracted parleying at Peking; the time" merit, officers are forced into positions hours may still be taken as the average for those endless negotiations bas gone by." which they are not competent to fill." length of the official working day. Count Iro has shown how it is possible to There is quite a long list of similar conclusions, assist the mandarius to make up their minds, which we need not quote. The Commission THE GOVERNMENT AND THE and it is hoped that Western diplomats will recommends the immediate cessation of new not prove too dense to con the lesson. Long appointments to the
OFFICIAL MEMBERS OF THE and painful experience, detrimental to China cessation
service; also the
SANITARY BOARD. of increase and humiliating to civilised Powers, has the existing staff of civil servants.
of salaries shown that argument is lost upon a Govern this point the report says: The evidence ment whose weapons are duplicity and pro- "shows that many of the officers of the crastination carried to their extremest limit. Public Service magnify the importance "of their du ties, and, as already mentioned, "the tendency is for each to compare his "work and remuneration with those in The Royal Commission appointed by the other Government departments. But when Government of New South Wales to inquire" we compare the average salaries paid by into the working of the Civil Service of that colony with a view to retrenchment has made
'Government with those paid by large in- its report
"stitutions in the colony, which require of The report points out that "their employees capacity, education, and "commission after commission has
throughout the great English-speaking
"industry at least equal to what is essential "colonies to inquire into the causes which
"in the Civil Service, it is seen that the “had made the Civil Service a byword and a
"rate of pay in the former is excessive. reproach." The subject possesses some in-
"The result of a comparison which we have terest for us in Hongkong in view of the
"instituted between the salaries enjoyed by a large number of clerical officers in the report of our Own Retrenchment Com- mittee, and the similarity of some of the "banks doing business in the colony is to "Civil Service with those paid in seven conclusions arrived at. In the Hongkong" establish the fact that the rate of pay in report the following passage occurs :-" In cases such as the Magistracy, the Post
"the Civil Service is from 20 to 30 per cent, "Office, and the Harbour Office, amongst "<
higher, and we are confirmed in our con- others, where the head of the depart-paid in mercantile establishments." The clusions by the evidence given of salaries ment has stated that it is impossible total expenditure on the civil service in "for him to carry out the duties of New South Wales amounted last year to "his office with a smaller staff and "where we have been unable to make further "investigation into the mutter, we are necessarily not in a position to make any "recommendation in favour of any retrench ment, but we beg to call the serious atten- "tion of the Government to this point." In New South Wales the Commission appear to have had before them a good many heads of departments who were of opinion that no reduction of staff was possible. Surprise "is expressed"-
'-we quote from the summary $125,000. of the report given by the Sydney Morning Herald-" at the apathy displayed by some "of the heads of the Civil Service on the subject of Civil Service reform, and the "Commissioners were unprepared for the assurances given by a number of the per- "manent heads of departments and sub. "departments that the service is, as a rule,
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CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
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If there was an air of insincerity about the Colonial Secretary's letter to the Sanitary Board acknowledging receipt of the reso lution with reference to the appointment of the Medical Officer of Health, the same charge cannot be brought in respect of the letter to the Hon. Ho KAI and Dr HARTI- GAN accepting. the resignation by those gentlemen of their appointment as members of the Board. "I am directed to acknow.
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ledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th "instant tendering your resignation of your seats on the Sanitary Board, which His Excellency the Governor has been pleased "to accept." So runs the missive, and there is no reason to suppose that the conven- tional phrase "has been pleased to accept does not in this case reflect real pleasure, destroy the Sanitary Board the resignation for the Governor's declared wish being to of its members must necessarily be gratify- ing to His Excellency. But what is to be done now that the Sanitary Board has is not only at been virtually dissolved and the plague actually made its appearance in the our gates but bas colory? We are not disposed to regard the £2,816,995, and the retrenchments recom- situation with alarm so far as the probability mended by the Commission amount to about of the disease becoming epidemic is con- a quarter of a million, or say 9 per cent. cerned, provided reasonable precautions, be In Hongkong the ordinary expenditure ac- taken. It was only to be expected, after cording to the estimates for the year in the firm hold the plague got on the colony which the Retrenchment Commission sat, last year, that under similar climatic con- 1894) was $1,982,281, and the retrench-ditions it should reappear in sporadic form, only, or say ments recommended amounted to $79,000 but the occurrence of one or two isolated per cent., against which there cases, while they ought to put the sanitary was a recommendation that exchange com- authorities on their guard, need not cause pensation should be granted to the extent of any great alarm. But the matter is not one seem to have got something more tangible and every reasonable precaution must be The New South Wales people to be trifled with; the plague has appeared out of their Retrenchment Commission than taken to prevent its spread, for neglect at this colony did, but it remains to be seen the commencement might be attended with how far the useful recommendations that disastrous consequences. We may hope for have been made will be carried into effect the best, but we must be prepared for the when the Budget is submitted to Parliament. worst. We are more concerned, however, to gather Governmental attack on the Sanitary Board It is most unfortunate that the lessons from the report for local application should have been made at the present juncture.
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