THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3103, 3 September 1913, Page 34

THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

CLASSIFICATION LIST SUMMARISED. tFnou Our Own Corrksponoknt ) WELLINGTON, August 25. During the past few days the Government Printing OHice has been carrying out the work of despatching a copy of the civil service classification list to every civil servant wiiose name appears in it, and by this time the list should be in the hands of all. Already the list is arousing the keenest interest. The number of civil servants included in the provisional list is 4900 and the number of departments is 43. Following are the numbers of officers employed in each department; —Public Works, 525; Education, 494; Lands and Survey, 442; Mental Hospitals, 414; Agriculture, 393; Printing, 323; Customs, 252; Justice, 207; Public Trust, 182; Government Life Insurance, 151; Marine, 139; Internal Affairs, 129; Prisons, 125; Tourist, 118; Valuation, 94; Land and Deeds, 88; Minos, 81; Defence, 79; Income Tax, 74; Labour, 68 ; Treasury, 63; Audit, 54; Native, 54; Health, 54; Advances, 53; State Fire, 50; Registrar General, 33; Machinery, jfl ; Stamps, 35; Pensions, 27; Dominion Laboratory, 14; Friendly Societies, 12; Public Service Commissioners, 11; Ministerial Private Secretaries, 10; Crown Law, 9; Museum, 9; Pateuts, 7; Immigration, 6; Superannuation, 5; Bacteriological Laboratory, 4: Police, 4; Land for Settlemen, 2; Cook Islands, 1. These are not strictly all separate departments, but they arc given as they arc separately classified in the list. Apart from the 21 heads of departments whose salaries are not given, as they are fixed in the Parliamentary Estimates, the highest salaries appear to be those of the engineor-i'n-chiof of the Public Works Department and the Government balneologist at Rotorua, both of whom receive £IOOO a year. In addition, the balneologist has a free house.

The representatives of the legal and medical professions in the service are among the most highly paid officers. The Crown Law Department has five barristers and solicitors, the chief of whom, as assistant law officer receives £325 in the proposed classification without any maximum stated for the position. Another officer receives £7OO, two others £650, and the fourth £365, with maximums of £7OO for the three and £4OO for the fourth. The Public Trust Office has also a number of qualified solicitors in its legal branch, the highest salary paid being £650, with a maximum of £750. Among the medical men are four superintendents of Mental Hospitals with £7OO a year ; and under the head of Allowances in the nature of salary ” there is £2OO for board and lodging. The highest salaries paid to women are to the lady medical Inspectors of schools—two at £450 per annum—and to the lady assistant inspector of hospitals, who ieceivos £3OO per annum. For women in the clerical division the highest salary is apparently that of a correspondence clerk in the Trcasurt', who receives £2OO without any stated maximum. The estimate of the extra cost announced by the Minister for Justice is £12,000 or under, but some members of the service

have predicted that the cost will be at least four times that sum, particularly when the maximum attached to each position is reached.

In con vernation with a representative of this paper on Monday, a member of the public service stated that the classification as gazetted would by no means give satisfaction to the service as a whole. The principal anomalies had not been removed, and in many cases they had been accentuated. When officers in one department had been in receipt of salaries considerably less than other men in the same department for the same work, and perhaps having themselves better qualifications, they confidently looked forward to a lift - up; but instead of that they found that the other man had been confirmed in his position and permanently placed in a class above them. Heads of departments had in general received increases, and some officers had been treated with extreme generosity. The prospects of those entering the service had been improved and their rate of advancement accelerated. Those who had received least consideration were those who entered the serv.ee as cadets and were now midway in their career with, say, 15 or 20 years’ service, while many who entered by the old side doof of political or other personal favour were loading them by a fair margin as regards salary. In the Audit Department, continued the speaker, the salaries averaged more than those for the rest of the service. The inspectors—of whom there were 13—were in receipt of salaries of from £305 to £475. Three of these had passed the senior civil service examination, but only one had passed the examination for A.I.A.N.Z. The youngest, who was 26 years of age, received £305, and the next, youngest (31 years of age) received £405. In the Public Trust Department the deputy trustee could now reach £6OO. One assistant solicitor, 26 years of age, went from £4OO to £4BO, while another, 22 years of age, received £2BO, with a maximum of £3OO. The two latter salaries and those in the Audit Department, considering the qualifications of the officers, might be contrasted w.th those paid in the Mince Department, where the mining geologist, who was an M.A., D.Sc., and iB.E., was graded at £345-£400; the paleontologist, an M. A. and _ D.Sc., got £345; and the assistant a M.Sc., was graded £2BO-£3OO. In the; Customs there were 30 men receiving over £3OO per annum, and men with 17 and 18 years’ ser-vice-examining officers—wore receiving just under that amount. The inspectors of machinery wore all graded in the professional division, and were placed on a decidedly better footing in regard to salary. In the Lands and Survey Department, which was one of the largest in the service, the salaries of the local heads and of district surveyors had been increased. Young surveyors started at £2lO, whereas they were formerly given only £l5O, and advanced to £3OO. The chief draughtsmen’s salaries had been increased all round. In the report of the commission on the unclassified departments of the public service, presented to the House last year, attenhon was drawn to the fact that there was great dissatisfaction amongst the clerical and draughting staffs because all the “ plums wore reserved for the technical staff (the surveyors). The position in regard to the draughting staff was pointed; out as being even more acute than with the clerical staff, and it was stated that it was becoming increasingly difficult to procure efficient draughtsmen. The commission recommended that the pay of the draughting staff be increased in order to attract and retain good men. The draughtsmen were c’assed as “draughtsmen” and as “draughtsmen and computers,” *hut none of the Dunedin men were classed under the latter title, although the work was done here as efficiently as elsewhere. Many others were so graded who weye only just out of their cadetship. There was groat inequality of pay f6r similar work and length of service. In the Valuation Department, the chief clerk m the local office had his work assessed at a maximum of £220 although the salary allotted him was in excess of th : s. For the same work in Invercargill and elsewhere it was assessed at £260. . . , ~ . In conclusion, it w r as pointed out tiiat increases had been granted to some officers who had already served more than the 40 years necessary to enable them to retire on superannuation, and it was remarked that it was strange that such officers had not attained the maximum before.