INCREMENT NOT SALARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17843, 26 July 1921, Page 6

INCREMENT NOT SALARY.

PUBLIC SERVANT'S GASE.

APPEAL COURT'S DECISION. [BZ TELEGRAPH. —PE.ESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Monday.

The Court of Appeal this morning gave judgment in thecase of Sutherland, heard on July 13. This was an appeal from the judgment of the Chief Justice, in which he directed a mandamus to be issued against the Post and Telegraph Appeal Board, ordering it to hear an appeal by the respondent Sutherland on the question of a special increment allowed to him. The Chief Justice held that there had been a determination as to Sutherland's salary, and that therefore he had a right to appeal. Mr. Justice Stringer delivered the judgment of the Court, in which he said the Court was of opinion that the Chief Justice was right in holding that the list published by the department in April, 1920, was not a classification list on which an appeal would lie. The Court of Appeal, however, disagreed with the Chief Justice on the question as to whether the granting of the special increment was a " determination of salary." The word " salary," said Mr. Justice Stringer, did not include increment. The Act, he said, clearly intended that the matter of special increment should be left entirely to the secretary of the_ department, and therefore the Court was of opinion that the decision of the secretary on this matter could not be appealed against. The appeal was theretore allowed.