An Analysis of the Social Backgrounds, Educational Qualifications and Career Patterns of Permanent Heads in the New Zealand Public Service 1913-73.

Abstract

In a satirical book on New Zealand society, Mitchell writes: 'The great sociological-anthropological machine of the American universities hasn't yet processed New Zealand, boiling it all down to a book full of tables, every generalization significant statistically. Nor ahve the experts who package a country and distil its essence into a few hundred pages, or even a generalization, plasticised New Zealand. John Gunter didn't add New Zealand to his volumes on the U.S.A., U.S.S.R and the other major powers, and his successor went home after two days. Margaret Mead never lived with the natives in their tin-roofed huts. Raymond Postgate never sampled the Rose Cafe on Lambton Quay, to conver three stars on its Egg on Toast and none on its Egon Ronay. the authors of 'See the World on Five Dollars a Day' managed only a quarter of an hour in New Zealand after the last General Wage Order. Googie Withers went back to Australia after a week's visit, complaining that she had no idea what New Zealand was like. It had been shut.' Althought this is a somewhat lighthearted comment, the picture it paints of the state of research into aspects of New Zealand's social and institutional life is by no means ill-founded. Witness the amount of research into the Public Service, for instance. For almost all of the 130 odd years since New Zealand was officially colonised, the Public Service has been a vital element in the country's progress. Yet, during this period it has been the subject of only a handful of comprehensive studies; and, while there is no doubt as to the value of these studies, they have mainly been limited to analyses of such aspects as personnel policies, the development and structure of departments and the rules and regulations that have governed departments' operations. With the exception of a study by Smith in which the dominant characteristics and the working environment of executive-level administrators in 27 departments are examined, various personnel of the Public Service have not been their central focus.