H.—l4.

84

Mines Department. The new system has not yet been installed. Native Department. The new system has not yet been installed. Patents Office. The new system has not yet been installed. Post and Telegraph Department. The new system is working satisfactorily. The records of the Secretary's office, the Chief Inspector's office, and the Inspector of Telegraph-offices have lsecn amalgamated. The saving in this Department is £600 per annum. The new system is being extended to district offices, and is already installed at the chief post-offices, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, Oamaru, Timaru, and Wellington. Public Service Superannuation Office. The new system has not been installed. Public Trust Office. The new system has not yet been installed in any of the divisions. Public Works Dfpartment. The system is well installed, and is considered satisfactory. The saving is £545 per annum. It is also intended to extend the new system to district offices. Registrar-General"s Office. The new system will shortly be installed. Land and Deeds (Stamps). 'Ihe system has not been installed. Tourist and Health Department. The new system is installed, but is incomplete as regards the index to the series. We think that it would be advisable for the Record Clerk to receive some further instruction in connection with the installation. The saving in this Department is £200 per annum. Treasury Department. The system is installed. It is considered satisfactory, and has resulted in a saving of £135 per annum. INSTALLING NEW RECORD SYSTEM. We suggest that in installing the new system Record Clerks should be given an opportunity of examining a series system in actual working, and we desire to emphasize the importance of making an index to the series at the commencement. After the subjects dealt with by the Department have been classified into cognate series, an index of these subjects, compiled from subjects found in the old index-book, should be carefully drafted, and all the blocks shown in this index as well as in the subject-index .DIRECT DISTRIBUTION OF CORRESPONDENCE. It is found that in many Departments the rule is to submit all files to some officer other than the Record Clerk for an indication as to whom the file should be sent for action. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, we consider that the Record Clerk should be capable of making this distribution, and so greatly facilitate the work of the Department. DESTRUCTION OF UNIMPORTANT RECORDS. The question of destroying valueless records requires urgent consideration. The need for increased accommodation is a growing one, but in many instances a remedy would be found by sorting out and destroying unimportant records. DETENTION OF FILES BY OFFICERS. The Committee regrets that more advantage is not taken of the system recommended of " bringing up " files for action. In some Departments there is a tendency among officers to hold files until all their action is complete —viz , awaiting replies to their memoranda, ore. —and it is a most difficult matter for Record Clerks to keep track of correspondence which is held in this way. If officers cannot deal immediately with a file, we are of opinion that it should be leturned to the Record-room, with a request to " bring up " on a certain day. The neglect of a rule to this effect is, we believe, the chief cause of the complaint that when files are wanted they are not xn their proper places in the file-boxes.