THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

SOME IMPORTANT CHANGES. (special to "the press.") WELLINGTON, January 31. Cabinet to-day decided to make some important changes in the Public Service. Mr J. W. Poynton, Public Trustee, was appointed Superintendent of the new State Guaranteed Advances Department. Dr. Fitchett, SolicitorGeneral, will succeed Mr Poynton as Public Trustee. Professor Salmond will be but will continue in his position as counsel to the Law Drafting Department. Mr 1\ Corliss was appointed commissioner of Stamps in succession to Mr C. A. Hickson, since whose retirement the position has been held temporarily >>y Mr W. R. Morris, Assistant Secretary of the Post Office.

Mr Poynton was born in Victoria, and arrived as a child with his parents in the gold-diggine days. As a young man tie ac a gold miner, bus studied in his spare time, and eventually became a barrister and solicitor. He was a prominent member of the Liberal and Labour party in Wellington in 1895. He was made a magistrate in 1895, and in 1900 he was appointed Public Trustee. Dr. FLtchett was born in Englani, but educated in the colonies. He was admitted to the Bar in 1881, and from 1887 to 1890 represented Dunedin Ceatral in the House of Representatives in the Liberal interest, and during that period was Whip of the Liberal Party. Subsequently he was appointed Parliamentary law draftsman and Crown Lnv Officer and Solicitor-General. He has been a member of the New Zealand University Senate since 1883. In 1907 he represented New Zealand at tho joint conferenco' of French, British and colonial delegates, held in London, on the New Hebrides question. Professor Salmond was born in Northumberland and was educated «.t Otago University (where his father was professor), and subsequently studied n Lomlon. He was admitted to the New Zealand Bar in 1887. He was Professor of Law in the University of Adelaide from 1897 to 1906, and was appointed Professor of Law in the Victoria University College, Wellington, in 1906, and in 1907 was appointed counsel to the Law Drafting Department of the Government. :Professor Salmond is the author of some valuaable standard legal works, notab'y "Essays in Jurisprudence and Legal History," and "The Law of Torts." Sa law draftsman he has done excellent work.

Mr Corliss is a native of Wanganui, and has been in the Public Service 'A New Zealand for many vcarK, and i.c is an able and popular officer. He is a brother-in-law of Dr. Findlav.