TEMPORARY CLERKS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8, 11 January 1899, Page 5

TEMPORARY CLERKS.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day,

'H.R.R.;? a temporary clerk, who is evidently behind the scenes, writes to a. local paper-stating that the temporary clerks are helpless and spiritless as compared with working tailors or navvies. He says the temporary clerk is ah officer who usually performs departmental work worth from £ 185 to £300 per annum for the wnges ' "or a • little, perhaps, in excess of those of a pick and shovel man, and on this scant pay he has to keep up the appearance of a gentleman. In many ca_ses the temporary clerk has grown old and grey in his temporary employment. Some' have been twenty years in the service, others fifteen to five, the word 'temporary' meaning nothing, so. that, how.ever• they began, they must now be. fully qualified, the clerical work involving nothiiig very special, as the writer has heard the Premier say; He declares, in conclusion, that he does not kno-w Of a department, which is over-manned. Your correspondent may add that, while the fenipbrary qlerk is technically disentitled to .compensation for retirement at the' rate of one month's salary for each year of service, those who have or can bring to bear any influence on the Government have no difficulty in obtaining - the boon on the elastic ground of special services. The numerous appointments of cadets and temporary cadets still further complicate the situation, and many of the oldest officials who have been regarded as permanent officers, effi facto, only rank as temporary clerks.