COLONIAL SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 7

COLONIAL SERVICE.

Creation of New Organisation Suggested. SELECTION OF GOVERNORS. (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, May 1. The creation of a single colonial ser--vice is recommended in the report of the committee which lias been considering appointments in the Colonial Office an the Colonial Service. The committee was appointed last year by Mr. L. S. \mery, Colonial Secretary in the Conservative Government, with Sir Warren Fisher as chairman. For some time past it has been considered that certain changes were necessary owing to the growth of the British dependencies towards the new status of the Dominions as established at the last Imperial Conference. It was found that under the growing system of independence there were now many anomalies. The Colonial Office itself, for example, has become a dual department, that is, the Colonial Office proper, and the Dominions Office. The report deals with territories handled by the Colonial Office. These comprise 50 different territories covering more than 2,000,000 square miles, with a total population of 50,000,000 people of varied nationalities and religions. The' expenditure of Colonial, government alone has risen from £19,000,000 in 1908. to £68,000,000' in- 1929. The governmental staff has increased from 93.208 to 220,770. Recommending the creationof a single colonial service, the committee urges that special services such as agriculture, medicine and education should be organised within this single service. With regard to appointments now made through the machinery of the private secretary to the Secretary of State,_ it is recommended that the final selection of candidates should be made by the Colonial Services Appointments Board, which should be set up, consisting of a chairman and two members nominated hy the Civil Service Commission. "With reference to elections of Governors, the committee recommends that prior consideration should be given to the suitability of officers holding high offices in the Colonial services. The committee produces figures which serve to show that there is not real ground for suggestions that the older universities have anything like, a monopoly of Colonial appointments.