D.—No. 7. 8

is not appropriated by tlic Colonial Legislature or to any person holding any honorary office or employed for any temporary service only Provided always that when an officer of the General Government also holds a paid provincial office it shair be lawful for the Governor to diminish as he shall think lit the payment to such officer of the salary referred to in this Act Provided further that the computation of superannuation and other allowances specified in this Act shall only be made in case of such officer in respect of the salary paid to him by the General Government. Part I. — Classification. 3. The Civil Service shall for the purposes of this Act be taken to consist of five (5) classes Provided always that the Governor shall have power to create new and to alter existing offices and so soon as salaries have been legally appropriated to such offices shall bring them by Order in Council under the provisions of this Act. 4. The officers mentioned in Schedule A. to this Act shall be officers of the first class and (except in the case of officers paid by virtue of any Act now or which hereafter shall be in force) shall have attached to them respectively but subject to such alterations as are hereinafter provided the several salaries which shall bo granted to them by the Appropriation Act for the year 180 or by the Appropriation Act next following the creation of any additional iirst class officer. o. Every class except the first class shall have a maximum and a minimum limit of salary ascertained in the manner hereinafter directed and every officer therein shall bo entitled to receive in every year by way of increase to his salary a sum equal to one-sixth part of the difference between the limits of the salary assigned for that year to the class in which he is placed but no officer shall in any year receive a salary higher than the maximum limit for that year in his class. G. In the message transmitting the Estimates for the current financial year the Governor may recommend to the House of Representatives the rates of salaries of the officers of the first class and also a maximum and a minimum limit of salary for each class except the first and the rates and limits of salary thereupon adopted by the House of Representatives for each such respective class shall be the rates and limits of salary as the case may be for that class during that financial year but in every inferior class the maximum limit of salary shall be less than the minimum limit of salary in the class next above such inferior class and in any subsequent financial year the Governor may recommend by message to the House of Representatives a rateable reduction or increase if any such be required according to a specified rate in or to the salaries of all classes. 7. As soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this Act the Governor in Council shall determine the number of offices of each class that arc required for the efficient working of each Department and shall classify the offices of the Civil Service according to the arrangement of offices so determined and as soon as such classification has been completed a statement thereof shall bo published in the Government Gazette. 8. The salary of no officer shall bo reduced through the operation of this Act (except as hereinafter provided) to any amount less than he is now receiving and the annual increasp shall in no case be granted except upon satisfactory proof of the efficiency and general good conduct of each officer and if at the time of the passing of this Act any officer is in receipt of a salary within the limits assigned by this Act to the class in which the Governor in Council places him but above the minimum salary of that class such officer shall continue to receive such salary and the annual increases provided for in section five of this Act until he shall have reached the maximum therein provided. 9. If at any time any officer thinks that he has been placed in a class lower or be in receipt of a less amount of salary than that which from the nature of his services he ought to have been placed in or entitled to or that the increased duties imposed upon him are such as would devolve on an officer of a higher class than that in which he has been placed in the annual list he may appeal to the Governor in Council and such appeal shall be submitted to the Governor in Council in the manner hereinafter directed and the decision thereupon shall be final. 10. The first class officers at the seat of Government shall form a Board to which all appeals as hereinbefore mentioned shall be referred before they arc submitted to the Governor in Council which Board shall inquire thereinto and report thereupon and make such recommendations as to it shall seem fit on such appeals which shall thereafter be submitted together with such report and recommendations to the Governor in Council And it shall be lawful for any Minister of the Crown at any time to refer to such Board such question as ho may think fit connected with the administration of the Civil Service of the Colony in the matters of appointment promotion salary or inquiry or other questions connected with the efficiency and welfare of such service and it shall be the duty of such Board to report for the consideration of the Government on every question so referred and it shall have power and authority to summon and examine witnesses and to call for and obtain papers. Part II. — Alteration of Offices. 11. It shall be lawful for the Governor from time to time to abolish or consolidate any offices and alter the distribution of the officers in the Civil Service in each Department as circumstances may require. 12. When the services of any officer are dispensed with in consequence of the abolition of the office he holds or otherwise and not through any fault of his own he shall as compensation receive for each year of service one month's salary according to the rate paid him at the time of such abolition and a proportionate sum for any additional period less than a year such officer shall have a prefercnt claim subject to consideration as in the case of promotion to employment when a vacancy occurs in any class not superior to the class he occupied at the time of the abolition of his office Provided always, that the amount of compensation so paid shall in no case exceed the amount of salary which would have accrued to such officer between his former and subsequent appointment Provided also that in the case of the abolition of an office after the passing of this Act and before the date of the classification under it the holder of such office shall have a similar claim to employment when a vacancy occurs in any class not superior to the class in which it is considered he would have occupied at tke time of the abolition of his office.

Division of Civil Service. First cliiss officers Salaries of classc3 Mode of voting salaries. C I;i —iflciition. Application of nlnmiflrnftion Appeal. i i Civil Service Board. Abolition and ilidulion of , offices. Compensation on abolition. And re-employ- ; nieiit.

EEPOET OF THE CIVIL