CIVIL SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 282, 22 August 1908, Page 5

CIVIL SERVICE

—' ' » .. — CLASSIFICATION AND SALARIES. SOME CURIOUS ANOMALIES. A year ago a Public Service Classification Act was passed, in accordance with which a special Board was set up to classify all public servants into various divisions, for which maximum and minimum rates of pay were provided. The Board has not yet produced its scheme of classification, and others than Mr. J. F. Arnold, M.P., who asked a question concerning it in the House on Thursday, are anxious for its appearance. Civil servants, especially, aro eager to compare tho salaries which will result from the Board's classification with those which officers of the Service aro at present- receiving. An article in The Dominion, based upon tho Budget estimates, showed some striking anomalies in the salaries received by public servants iii different departments, but did not nearly exhaust the. subject. • The examination of published returns shows plainly that some .departments are more favoured than others. Eor instance/in the Tourist and Health Rosorts Office, a number of officers are paid £210 yearly, and others at a higher rate. It is hardly creditable that the work of this department is so varied or important as that of the Public Trust Office or the Treasury, yet the averago salary is better. True it is that one clerk in the Treasury is paid as well as a Tourist Office Agent, but it must be remembered that for this case there are special reasons. Tho clerk is a daughter of a much-respected deceased .statesman; she must be presumed to inherit her father's ability, and is therefore naturally entitled after a short apprenticeship to £260 per annum. Others in the same office are receiving less pay after much longer service, so that notwithstanding the one exceptional case- it appears that the services of a Tourist "officer are assessed at a higher value than those of a Treasury clerk. An 111-paid Department. An important department is that of tho Deeds and Land Registry, whose officers look after the titles to tho whole of tho Dominion's landed estate.: Inability or carelessness here would cause dire confusion and loss far more serious .than-could result from bad advice as to where to fish or see thebest mud spring. Yet tho senior clcrk in tho Wellington office, with twenty years' experience of registration, receives less than n District Agent of the Tourist Office —still less than tho lady in the Treasury. The Assistant Registrar, .with forty years' servifce, gets less than many officers of the Law Courts.

Mail}' of_ the clerks in the Land Transfer Office and in other-departments-whero expert' knowledge or skill is required, are "extras" or temporary clerks, and receive the princely wage of ten shillings daily. An expert writer, a smart man at the counter, a qualified conveyancer is treated to about tho same minimum wage, on which each may have to support a wife and family after paying over a third 'of his income in rent. . Printers, bookbinders, and messengers receive more, tho Government paper-wetter gets as much. .Tho Registrar-General of Lands, who is also District Land Registrar, and is an able lawyer, receives less than tho secretaries of his own department and the Labour Department, who are not experts.Fewer Men and Better Pay. Tho Primo Minister-lias stated that tho Public Servico of New Zealand .is better paid than any other. This is admittedly truo as regards some of his pot offices, but the averago pay of the rank and file is not liberal. M'ha.t is needed is fewer men, all of the. best ability, and with the pay more evenly dividea among them. The salaries at present rates show a strange- jumble of parsimony and extravagance. ■ Tho task of remedying these inequalities will be a heavy one. If wo were to pay upon tho principle that all inen aroi equal, the problem would bo easy; all public servants.' from Ministers to messengers, would be paid at tho samo rate, if not por annum, at least per hour of work done. But we doubt if our legislators are so far advanced in/'Revolutionary Socialism" as to make such a proposal. The reasonable alternative is that Stato officers should be paid in accordance with amount and quality of, services rendered. Some kind of uniformity of pay for tho mail of average industry and intelligence should bo established with inducement to special merit. Tho extra clerks, if re-, quired, should bo paid fairly for their work and for any useful knowledge and experience tlioy uisiy bring with them. If not required in tho office, such men, if neoding relief, might perhaps be employed in useful public works, say, afforestation, so long as the' finances of tho country will permit.