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1873. NEW ZEALAND.

REPORT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMITTEE.

(Report brought up IWo August, 1873, and ordered to be printed.)

The Committee appointed on the 22nd July, " to consider the Civil Service Act Amendment Bill, and the Permanent Officers' Salaries Bill, and also to consider whether it is desirable to further amend the Acts relating to the Civil Service," have the honor to report to the House, that at their first meeting they resolved to divide their inquiry under the following heads : — (1.) The Pensions System. (2.) The position of Officers for whose Salaries there arc Permanent Appropriations. (3.) The Classification System. (4.) Whether or not the Government should have the power, in any case of proved unfitness or misconduct, to dismiss an Officer without such Officer being entitled to claim investigation by a Board of Inquiry. (5.) The mode of providing for Compensation for loss of office, when an Officer's services are dispensed with for any other cause than unfitness or misconduct. The Committee have arrived at the following conclusions : — I.—Pensions. 1. That in computing the claim to Pensions which remained after the passing of" The Civil Service Act Amendment Act, 1871," it is in accordance with the meaning and intention of that Act, that such computation should be based on the salaries to which the Officers were entitled, or were receiving, at and previous to the date of the passing of the Act. 2. That the Colony should continue liable (without making any deduction in aid from the salaries of the Civil Servants) for all Pensions to which Officers who entered the Service previous to the passing of "The Civil Service Act Amendment Act, 1871," may become entitled under the provisions of the Civil Service Acts of 1858, 1861, 1866, and 1871: Provided that such Pensions shall be computed on the basis of the salaries received by tho Officers, or to which they wore entitled, on and before the passing of the Act. 3. That it be provided by Act, that tho Governor shall not grant any fresh Pension or Pensions under the Acts mentioned in Resolution No. 2, the payment of which would cause the annual payments on account of Pensions under those Acts, to exceed the sum of £9,000, unless His Excellency shall be satisfied that, within the spirit and intention of the Acts, he cannot refuse to grant a Pension or Pensions, tho payment of which would cause tho annual sum of £9,000 to be exceeded. 4. That the Pensions System, on conditions similar to those provided in " The Civil Service Act, 1866," bo revived, and that (commencing from tho Ist January, 1874) an amount equal to 2-J per cent, be deducted from the salaries of all Officers who have joined the Service since the passing of "The Civil Service Act Amendment Act, 1871," and from all increases of the salaries of the Officers who were in the Service at that date ; and that such deductions, with the accretions of interest thereon, constitute a fund out of which Pensions shall be paid to all Officers who have joined the Service since the passing of the said Act, and to all Officers in the Service previous to that time, upon the basis only of the increases to their salaries since that date. Should the fund at any time prove insufficient, the balance to be defrayed by a pro rata contribution from all Officers entitled to Pensions. II. —Salaeies Pebmanentlt. Appeopbiated and Appeopeiations undee Peemanent Acts. 1. That it is unnecessary to alter the principle which regulates the salaries of the Officers whose salaries are now permanently appropriated, excepting those of the Officers of the two Houses, which, after the present Officers cease to hold their appointments, should be regulated during the first Session of each Parliament, such regulation to be applicable to the whole duration of each Parliament; and excepting the salary of the Director of the Geological Survey, which, after the present occupant of that office ceases to hold it, should be voted annually.