Competitive examinations and their bearing on the Civil Service

Abstract

Since the appointment of the Civil Service Commissioners, it has been attested that a great improvement has taken place in the intellectual and moral status of the junior clerks ; that their business habits have not been seriously impugned ; that the more unlimited the competition, the greater has been the tendency to secure fit persons. We have the evidence of high officials, men of great sagacity and ripe experience, in favour of open competition we have parliament unanimously approving of the principle, and the general public supporting the views of their representatives. We have observed it successfully adopted in several great departments of the state, and that it is calculated to impart a powerful and healthy stimulus to our systems of education at large ; and to afford salutary and happy inducements to youths of fair promise to qualify for appointments in the service of the state.. Neither must it be forgotten that up to the present we have had no bonafide open competition for any office under the Home Government, and that socially, politically, and morally it is prudent and desirable that the principle should be formally recognised. Further, we have the Civil Service Commissioners themselves desiring the immediate and general introduction of open competitive examinations, and we have the Secretaries to the Treasury of several administrations voting for and publicly advocating the measure.