TELEGRAMS. PROMOTION EXPLAINED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 9

TELEGRAMS. PROMOTION EXPLAINED.

MR. MILLAR'S POSITION. [at iKtien.VFH — special to ths post,] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Tho Prime Minister s<iid to a reporter that there had been a misunderstanding in regard to Mr. Millar, son of the Hon. J. A. Millar^ whose appointment to the pest of electrician in the Railway Department had been criticised. Mr. Millar iiad been in the railway service for nine years and a half, and "during that time had made a study of electricity. Then he hud seemed extended leave of absence lor the purpose of gathering experience abroad, and had spent twenty-seven months in one of the largest electrical engineering establishments in Britain, also viskicg works in Canada and the United SUites. Had he -semaine-d in his position in the ordinary way, and displayed just the average intelligence, he , would automatically have 'received salary increases, and from' Ist April next he would have received £200 a year. His promotion was to a class in which the | salary ranged from £210 to £220 a year, and while undergoing training he had forfeited salary to th© amount of £450, 'besides expending a considerable sum in travelling and fees. His salary now was at most only twenty pounds more than he would have received as railway clerk or svationmalfter of the smallest country station in Now Zealand, and the promotion of a man who had specially qualified (himself was an everyday occurrence. The ■regulations provided machinery for such a course. Mr. Millar's total service was I^2 years.