H.—l4.

doing excellent work. The important fact is that staff training is, notwithstanding the tremendous upsets, the deliberate objective of all Departments. The career of each youth is under quarterly review. Some move on too fast for satisfactory training. Others leave us on military service before any noticeable progress can be made in their training, but we see that none is neglected, and our records of their progress so far will help us when those that have gone away and are yet to go shall have returned to us. Notwithstanding all obstacles, it is the Commissioner's settled view that exigencies of war call for the same determined effort in staff training rather than a slackening of endeavours. Progress has been made in training in special occupations during the year. Formerly it was the practice of the Public Service to engage men from outside the Service, men who had been trained in various occupations in public and private enterprise. Examples of these are Valuers and Rural Field Officers of many sorts. As has been indicated earlier, we are bent upon gradually taking over the training of officers for these occupations. Our intention is to get them as youths straight from school and attend to their training ourselves in our own way and specially for our own purposes. An example which came into operation this year was that of Rural Field Cadets. The Public Service in New Zealand is responsible for a variety of functions associated with primary industries which calls for the employment of a growing body of men in the field. Formerly we recruited these officers from stock firms and from among farmers. This year we have selected ten youths straight from school or from among those who have comparatively recently joined the Public Service and who are still under the age of nineteen. The type of applicant available is first class. The process of training is that these boys are allocated to selected farmers and will during the next five years actually work on farms and during that period cover all the main types of farming throughout New Zealand. Immediately on their appointment they are seconded from the Public Service, on leave without pay, and work for wages that are payable under the appropriate labour awards. While they are gathering practical experience they are also going through a correspondence course especially arranged through the Lincoln Agricultural College. For one month each year they are to be brought into the (iffice in a group for intensive training in the aspects of office-work associated with the field. At the end of three years of their training they are then to be allocated to the Departments in which they will serve in future. Their training then proceeds along more specialized lines to suit the particular Departments. Each cadet has to furnish a surety to remain in the Public Service for five years after the completion of his training. He is also bound, if required, to take up a bursary to the value of £100 per annum for an intensive training leading to a Diploma in Valuation and Farm Management, which has also been placed on the curriculum at the agricultural college mentioned. In the same way, the training of Urban Valuers and Property Supervisors has been undertaken. A diploma has been made available at the School of Architecture in the Auckland University College. Another example is the appointment of trainees in forestry. There is no School of Forestry in this Dominion, but as far as possible we are making use of appropriate studies in the curriculum for the Bachelor of Science degree, and a strict training plan involving office and field experience has been laid down which will lead to the completion of a satisfactory training for forestry officers of the future. Most successful have been the plans for training of a growing and important section of Public Service officers which comes under the general heading of engineers, architects, and draughtsmen. The most painstaking care has been given to a course of study for the main types of draughtsmen. A syllabus has been laid down for a course of study for each class which is up to a standard not far removed from that required for an associate membership of the various engineering institutes. Arrangements have been made in the main centres for personal teaching, and for those on provincial stations a correspondence course is available. For the same type of employee a scheme has been worked out in which the trainees in the various types

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