H.—l4.

22

administrative orders, of a special section for the general supervision and control of the Civil Service. The functions of this section would be — (1.) To watch over the general condition and activities of the Civil Service. with a view to its effective and economical employment; and to make, of its own initiative, all inquiries that may be necessary to that end : (2.) To bring to the notice of Heads of Departments concerned any mattei of importance for them to know, with its recommendations: (3.) To secure that in each Department there shall exist efficient machinery for recognizing and rewarding exceptional cases of ability and merit; and to ensure that such cases shall be brought to the notice of other Departments when the interests of the Public Service require this to be done: (4.) To secure that in cases where it would be to the advantage of the Service that transfers should be made from one Department to another, such transfers shall take place : (5.) To carry out inquiries and investigations into any matters o mnected with departmental administration or methods of working. The Commissioners recommend that the section should be so constituted as to possess experience, so far as possible, of various branches of the Service, and think that it should consult periodically with the Heads of Departments or with officers deputed by them on all questions of organization, or other questions falling within the sphere of its functions, especially when some new departure is contemplated. Importance is given to the necessity for co-ordinating Civil Service examinations with the educational system of the country; and with this object it is proposed to adjust the competitive examinations, in respect of the age of competitors and subjects of competition, to the status of the educational system actually existing in the country. Great stress is laid on the necessity for bringing under the open com-petitive-examination scheme any Departments or positions at present exempt; and it is recommended that when by an act of patronage a person is appointed to a high administrative position in the Civil Service who has not served the prescribed number of years in the Public Service, the appointing Minister should lay before Parliament a statement of the names and qualifications of persons appointed or to be appointed. Under the staffing proposals there will be — (a.) A class of junior clerks rising from £50 to £200, with an efficiency bar at £130. Higher members of this particular class may be appointed to staff posts attached to the class or to a higher grade, with a salary fixed at varying rates up to £250 per annum, and in a few cases up to £300. (b.) Senior clerks : The age of entry is proposed to be eighteen years; and the scale £85, rising to £350, beyond which there should be staff posts carrying special pay, but ordinarily not exceeding £450 per anmyn, or, in a few exceptional cases, reaching £500. (c.) The Administrative Class is proposed to be recruited by a special examination, and the age of entry will provide for candidates having passed through a university course. In answer to objections likely to be made to the proposal to confine officers to the original division in which they entered, the Commissioners are of opinion that greater facilities should be provided, especially in England and Ireland, for the progress from the primary to the secondary schools and thence to the universities of pupils capable of benefiting by secondary and university training respectively. Generally, it seems to have been considered by the Commissioners that a lad progressing from the primary to the secondary schools and thence to the univeisitv was more worthy of consideration for a higher post in the Public Service than an officer who spent a similar time in the junior or senior class. These staffing proposals are of great interest; but I am convinced that any arrangement under which promotion to a higher class would be debarred to officers already in a lower one would be difficult, if not impossible, to apply in a country such as New Zealand, where the Public Service and lite education system have had to adapt themselves to altogether different conditions than exist in Great Britain, and where so many public servants do credit to themselves and the Service by universitv-worh done by them after their appointment.