PUBLIC SERVICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14840, 18 February 1919, Page 3

PUBLIC SERVICE.

COMPLETE RECLASSIFICATION. (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. Tlhe whole public service, including the railways, ia undergoing a complete overhaul of its classification listß. The process is m many ways akin to the^ consideration of a ".dispute" between ordinary unions and the employers, because the public service generally expects improvement^ to eventuate from the process. It has been awaited for several years, both m regard to the railways and the general service, and appears to be' going smoothly. Mr. Donald Robertson, Public Service Commissioner, has just returned from a visit to Christchurch, Dunedin, Oamaru, and Invercargill m connection with the re-olassification process. He informs me that there has been a close revaluation of the work of every public officer, and he has been desirous of personally investigating the matter on the spot. This big task has been greatly facilitated by the periodical inspections made by his department during the war. Possibly, he remarked, the* general public has not given enough credit to the service for the way m which | things have been kept going dtiring the war period under great difficulties. Mr. Thompson, assistant 'Commissioner, has left for the West Coast and Marlborough, to continue the re-classifi-cation work, and Mr. Robertson, accompanied by Colonel Esson (who has been appointed Assistant Commissioner for the purpose of helping forward the reclassification work) will shortly leave Wellington to carry out the necessary personal investigations into North Island officers' duties. "At the present rate of progress," said Mr. Robertson, "we shall be ready to submit the classification' list to Parliament some time m May."