CIVIL SERVICE CADETS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11249, 13 April 1908, Page 2

CIVIL SERVICE CADETS.

Apparently while the Government is seeking to beautify the Civil Service with classification and superannuation schemes, the youthful aspirant for <i career is becoming more and moie distrustful of the prospects offered' him by State- employment. Only a few years ago candidates entered' for the Civil Service junior examination m the single ardent hop© of obtaining" ti Government bijlet. Cadetships offered to thos« highest on the list were snatched at with avidity, and . . the candidate who passed 59th folfc that he was too far down, for one of the prized positions to come to Mm. Nowadays, it would seem that boys pass the examination cliiefly for tlie sake of having something to fall back on should other prospects fail. A -certain Department appointed to a cadtetfJiip last year a candidate who had been 500 th on the list, and this year, though it is not much more than a. month since the examination results were publislied, the same Department is forced to take No. 3CG or thereabouts on tlie list. The explanation is not that the Government has appointed over 300 cadets since the end of February, but that tlie great majority of Candidates who passed the examination have refused the proffered situations. This is the more surprising m that the prospects of Civil Service cadets were improved considerably by tlie Classification Act of last session. Formerly the cadet joined at a salary of £40, with board allowance of £25 if away from home, and lvis increases of salary were limited to £10 a year. Now lie will start at £40, wiith the same board allowance, but a first annual increment- of £50, and thereafter six of £15. - This seems comparatively generous, but it is pointed out thai even under the new scheme the cadet after seven years' service, and at the ajore, say, of 23, will be earning only £160 « year — less than a carpenter can attain to m the same time.