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1939. NEW ZEALAND.

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONER (TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT OF THE).

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

To His Excellency the Right Honourable George Vere Arundell, Viscount Galway, Member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty's Dominion of New Zealand and its Dependencies. May it please Your Excellency,— As Commissioner under the Public Service Act, 1912, I have the honour to submit the following report as required by section 15 of the Public Service Act.

REPORT. The year has been marked by a constitutional change in the form of control of the Service. The Public Service Act of 1912 provided for the administration of the Act to be vested in one Commissioner and two Assistant Commissioners. This system of control continued to obtain until 1936, when the Finance Act of that year enabled the appointment of two persons to hold office jointly as Commissioners. In pursuance of that legislation Mr. J. H. Boyes, at that time Commissioner of Pensions, and Mr. T. Mark, then acting Public Service Commissioner, were duly appointed and continued to act jointly until December, 1938. The Social Security Act then made it necessary to establish a Department for the purpose of that Act, and Mr. Boyes was appointed Chairman of the Commission which controls that large and important Department which is to administer the most vital and far-reaching social programme yet initiated in this country. Mr. Boyes, of course, is eminently fitted for this important post. He has had a life-long experience in the administration of social policy, to demonstrate his success in which his rapid advancement to the highest position in the Pensions Department need only be mentioned. Added to that comes his experience as Joint Commissioner in personnel management. While it is a matter of gratification that Mr. Boyes should have been selected for a position of such significance, it is, at the same time, a cause for real personal regret that thereby a capable and helpful colleague should be lost. The Act which brought Joint Commissioners into being provided a formula whereby a dispute between the Commissioners might be referred for determination to a third person appointed for that purpose by the Governor-General. It is an

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