348 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [parr II
investigation by Judge Cassels of the charges against the
Marine Department ; the evidence revealed a sad state of
things, described by one witness as bribery, corruption, and
boodling’. At Halifax evidence was given of the sale to
Government of goods wholesale, but at retail prices and an
additional profit. Government pays, it was said, for the
hard times. The effect of the evidence was satisfactory :
the minister told his officers to suspend action on the
patronage lists from time to time supplied to them, which
consisted of lists of firms from whom, on grounds mainly of
politics, the Government desired to see purchases made;
the Minister of Railways hastened to say that public ad-
vertisement would replace tenders as the means of procuring
stores on the Intercolonial Railway ; and Mr. Pugsley decided
that he would abolish all patronage lists in his department,
that of Public Works.
It is to be noted that the Canadian Civil Service legislation
includes no provision for pensioning officers, and this defect
also is seen in the Act of British Columbia in the same year
for regulating the Civil Service, which established new
gradings and laid down that promotion should be by merit.
The Bill as introduced provided for a superannuation fund
based on contributions of 3 per cent. on the officer’s salary
and a grant from the Government, but the measure was
energetically opposed, and Canada still suffers in the pro-
vinces as in the Federal Government from the disadvantages
arising out of poorly paid service, which, unlike the Imperial
Civil Service, has not the compensation, such as it is, of
a pension at its close, and is not redeemed by social con-
sideration and marks of royal favour.
In Newfoundland, as might be expected, the Civil Service,
which is small, has been much open to political influence, and
there also no pension system exists, a fact due mainly to
the poverty of the Colony.
Things are very different in the Commonwealth, which had
better models to follow than the Dominion, and which has
not the evil influence of the United States to corrupt its
© See Canadian Annual Review, 1908, pp. 56-61, 65, 166, 173, 530.
