H—s

18. Royal New Zealand Naval Reserve. —Post-war training of officers and men in this Reserve, who are recruited from the Merchant Navy, will commence in 1948 as accommodation becomes available in ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy for the periods of sea training involved. 19. Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve. —Renovations of the four R.N.Z.N.Y.R. Headquarters at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin are now progressing favourably, having been held up owing to the low priority granted to such work by the Building Controller. The installation of stores and training equipment will take place immediately renovations are completed, and this will be followed by a recruiting campaign. Officers and instructors have already been appointed and have prepared the skeleton organization necessary to ensure that training of new entries may commence immediately recruiting is completed. The post-war total strength of the R.N.Z.N.Y.R. will be some 120 officers and 840 ratings, spread over the four Divisions. It is intended, in the first instance, to recruit to half strength in 1948, remaining half being recruited in 1950, thus ensuring a steady intake of recruits over two years. The allocation of a harbour-defence motor-launch to each Division will make it possible to train recruits in practical small-boat seamanship and gunnery. It is expected that these launches will be handed over to the four Divisions towards the end of 1948. SECTION VI.—CIVILIAN STAFF AND DOCKYARD WORKMEN 20. The Public Service staff both at Navy Office and in the Dockyard has shown a steady decrease. Comparative figures are given in Appendix 111. 21. Considerable difficulty is still being experienced in maintaining trained staff at Wellington. It has proved almost impossible to obtain trained replacements for officers promoted within Navy Office or to positions in other Departments. The staffing situation is easier at Auckland and no great difficulty has been experienced in replacing losses of permanent staff by suitable temporary employees. 22. Although satisfactory progress was made with the clearance of wartime arrears of work, there were still matters outstanding which made it impossible to accomplish a complete return to a peacetime basis. Examples are — (a) Payment in lieu of arrears of leave which accrued to serving members of the permanent Royal New Zealand Navy during wartime. This involves considerable research work in the ledgers of ships and establishments in which the men served, and calculations according to the appropriate rates of pay. (b) Applications for war medals and ribbons, involving checking of records of service to establish eligibility of the applicants. (c) Preparatory work on matters relating to superannuation provisions for members of the Armed Services (eventually incorporated in the 1947 Superannuation Act). (d) Final settlement of pay accounts and war-service gratuities of " hostilities only " personnel discharged during the past year. 23. The new naval pay system was introduced during the year. This represented a considerable improvement on the previous system of ships' ledgers, and incorporates a form of control, by a master card system, at Navy Office, Wellington, which has proved eminently satisfactory. 24. A reorganization of personnel records was undertaken, and improvements are being effected in the system of recording complements and movements in various ships and establishments.

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