THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 3

THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

FURTHER RETRENCHMENT DETAILS. Further changes in <fche Public Service are announced. Mr. J. Ewan Smith, who was Commissioner of Old-Age Pensions until the amalgamation of the depurtment with the Postal Department, has been appointed Resident Commissioner at the Cook Islands, in succession to Col. Gudgeon. Lieut. -Col. G. F. C. Campbell, late Valuer-General, has been appointed gen- | eral manager of the State Fire Insurance Department. It was intended that Lieut. -Col. Campbell should act as Inspector General of the Forces during the absence of Col. Davies in England, but it has now been decided that that appointment shall not be specially filled. Dr. J. M. Mason, Chief Health Officer since the institution of the Public Health Department in 1900, will retire from that position, as already announced. The Public Health and Hospital and Charitable Aid Departments, will be merged in the Internal Affairs Department, of which Mr. Hugh Pollen is Under-Secretary. Mr. D. Souter, chief clerk of the Mental Hospitals" Department will be placed in direct control of that department. Dr. Mason will go Home to England for a year as the Government medical representative in London. He wilJ confer with the English health officers as to complaints which have been made about the condition of frozen meat shipped from New Zealand, and furnish reports to the Dominion Government. His services will also be available in connection with the purchase of drugs and medical appliances required at the New Zealand Government Sanatoria, and he will act as consulting medical officer to the Immigration Branch of the High Commissioner's Office. Mr. F. S. Pope, the newly-appointed Secretary for Agriculture, becomes also general manager of the Tourist Department, with Mr. C. R. C. Robieson (formerly chief clerk) in charge of the Tourist branch as Director of Tourist and Health Resorts. Mr. A. E. Fowler, formerly chief clerk of the Valuation Department (which has passed under the control of the Commissioner of Taxes) has been transferred to the Audit Department. The position of Chief Forester, rendered vacant by the death of Mi. H. S. Matthews, will not be filled. Mr. H. A. Goudie, nurseryman in charge of the Rotorua Plantations, will control forestry operations in the North Island ; and Mr. R. G. Robinson, nurseryman in charge at Tapanui, will, control the operations in the South Island. The Prime Minister states that reductions in the service effecting a saving of £187,000 are already in operation, and the full sum of £250,000 will be saved eventually. Sir Joseph Ward retains the portfolio.'of Lands, with control of the Forestry Department, and, as announced in The Post on Mondoy, the Hon. T. Mackenzie will be Minister of Agriculture, with charge of Industries and Commerce., and Scenery Preservation.