19

H.—2.

rendered it impossible to give that consideration to equitable claims which may now be expected. We make our recommendations with a full knowledge of the opposition they Difficult but will encounter, and of the thorny path any Government will tread that attempts necessarj. to act on this report, but with a conviction that, if not now voluntarily adopted, our proposals will ere long be forced on an impoverished community, who will then be unable to carry them out with the moderation, forbearance, foresight, and justice that would now be possible. We respectfully submit to your Excellency this our Report. Witness our hands and seals, this 18th day of June, 1880. Alfred Saunders, Chairman. R. Douglas. Thomas Kelly. C. Phabazyn.

In affixing my signature to this Report, I must qualify my approval by calling attention to the observation contained in it: "We are conscious of having left some large and important branches of the service altogether uninvestigated, of having inquired very superficially into others, and of having gone exhaustively into none." I wish, therefore, the Report had stopped short of proposals on which the entire reorganization of the Civil Service as a whole are recommended to be based. R. Douglas.

By Authority : Geobge Didsbubt, Government Printer, Wellington. —1880. Price Ib.]