THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15251, 14 March 1913, Page 5

THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

NO COMPULSORY EXAMINATIONS. [BY TELEOEAFB. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. A anagraph published yesterday in a local paper stated that examinations, are in 'store for the Civil Service and various heads of Departments have received a memorandum from the commissioners, instructing them to inform their staffs to prepare for a certain examination within three months. The rest of the paragraph was to the effect that some of the older members of the service viewed the prospective examination with uneasiness and alarm. Regarding the memorandum said to have been issued by the commissioners, the Public Service Commissioner, when he was consulted, replied that he had no knowledge of the issue of the memorandum referred to. It was possible, added the commissioner, that someone had misunderstood a notification issued recently regarding the examinations prescribed for certain officers of the Post and Telegraph Department. This examination was merely a continuation of examinations which have been held for years, and which wore now. made easier in several directions. The Hon. H. D. Bell, who was consulted, stated that he had no knowledge of , any general examination .of Civil servants being in contemplation. As a mat* ter of fact, the Minister added, such an examination would be illegal. Several heads of the Departments in the Public Service who were spoken to, stated that they knew nothing of the reported examination, and had received no notification regarding it. The regulations based upon the Public Service Act, as stated in a recent announcement by the commissioners, have been printed and have been circulated to {he heads of Departments, and these regulations deal with examinations under the provisions of the Act. From April the commissioners will take over control of the Junior Civil Service examinations, which they will have power to alter or vary at their discretion. • Ini addition the Act provides that promotion from one class to another in each of the four main divisions in which the service is to be classified, shall be conditional oh the passing of an examination. For instance, in the general division, Civil servants who have passed the usual entrance examination on joining the service, will be entitled to rise to a salary of £160 a year without further examinations. At this point there is an efficiency bar, only to be crossed by passing an examination. Having passed an examination, a clerk in the general division who is in receipt of a salary of £160 a year will be entitled to go on to a salary of £220 a year. In all this, however, there is no hint of any general examination to be imposed upon Civil servants as a whole within three months.