CIVIL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 470, 31 March 1909, Page 8

CIVIL SERVICE.

HOW THE MONEY GOES. AMOUNTS OUTSIDE OF SALARIES. The figures published yesterday showing the growth of Government Departments were not perfectly complete. One or two small subdivisions of the Service were disregarded, and the figures for "working railways" covered only the head and Departmental offices, exclusive of the largo non-clerical staff, whoso addition would have raised tho total of salaries for that Department from tens of thousands to over tho million. Theso additional railway figures were omitted, because in the published records of "Appropriations for Consolidated Fund Services " they are not shown separate from other expenses. In the great majority of cases, expenses of extra clerks were not included in tho tables published yesterday, it being difficult to ascertain these from the official returns. In some few cases, amounts put down in the returns among "other charges" were added to the salaries. Under "House of Representatives," for example, au amount of £1500 is set down among the "other charges" for "extra clerks and extra committee reporters." Li ti. figures published yesterday, it is added to salaries, care being taken to make tho inclusions and exclusions correspond for each year. The following are instances, from the official returns of 190S-9, of so-called " other charges," which do not swell the amount of "salaries ":—

Friondly Societies' Department.—Extra clerical assistance, £800. ' Land and Income Tax Department.—Extra clerical assistance, £6019; travelling allowances and expenses, £450. Post and Telegraph Department.—Allowances to tellers fof calculation of savings bank interest, to clerks in railway travelling post offices, married officers, etc., £8902. Industries and Commerce. —Other clerical assistance, £300;' travelling expenses and allowances, £500. Land and Deeds Registry.—Draughtsman's work performed by tho Survey Department, £5000; extra clerical assistance, £2200. Bankruptcy Department.—Commission to Deputy Assignees, £1000. Police Department.—House allowances, £5692. Geological Survey.—Expert and temporary assistance, £800; field allowances, £450; travelling allowances and expenses, £600; expenses of Boards of Examiners, £500. Customs Department.—Expenses of head office and local offices, £1200; extra tidewaiters, clerical and other assistance, £1800; travelling allowances and expenses, £2000; salaries of custodian, night-watchman and messengers at now Customhouse, £1121. Inspection of Machinery Department.— Travelling allowances and expenses, £2971. Lands and Survey Department.—Temporary assistance, £8000; temporary surveyors and parties, £17,000; travelling allowances and expenses including transfer of officers, £5000. Agricultural Department.—Travelling _ allowances " and expenses (fibre • • division), £1000. Valuation Department.—Extra clerical assistance, £500. Education Department (head office). — Clerical assistance, £650; travelling expenses and allowances, £600. Public Health Department.—Travelling expenses- and allowances, £2500. Stato Forests. —Management Department of State forests, £1500. Government Insurance. Department.—Extra clerical' assistance, £1000; medical fees, £5000. Acoident Insurance Branch.—Commission, £4000; extra clerical assistance, £500. Firo Insurance.—Commission, £3500. The most amazing item of all is one of £950, which appears under no other heading than this: "Other charges incidental to Cook and other Islands, notwithstanding anything in the Cook Islands Government Act, 1908, to the contrary." No less than £1000 is also set down under "miscellaneous services" for "extra clerical and other assistance, copying, and interpreting" in the Cook Islands— whose total population is 12,340.