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The " scarcity value " that has to be paid in fixing the remuneration of some professional groups as compared with others that have comparable or almost comparable periods of training before qualifications causes anomalies that should not be allowed to continue indefinitely. The fact that a first-year remuneration of over £1,600 has had to be paid to a doctor (age twenty-four and qualified in 1949) to fill a vacancy for Assistant Medical Officer, Western Samoa, clearly illustrates this abnormal situation. Nor do the remedies that have so far been applied appear to be adequate. In order to share in the high earnings in private practice, many bursars from the medical and dental schools purchase their release from obligations entered into when the bursary was granted. Doctors and dentists recruited from overseas are similarly attracted, or return to England to enter practice now that the national health scheme has extended opportunities there. Dental work for some children in New Zealand is being carried out to-day by outside dentists at a considerably higher cost than if it were performed by an adequately staffed Dental Division of the Department of Health. There seems to be no remedy other than to train sufficient doctors and dentists so that rates of earnings will be brought more into line with those of other sections of the community. Meantime the Commission has recommended the Government toincrease salaries to enable State services to be carried on. Positions Graded Above £1,060 Per Annum At the present time the authority of the Commission to regrade positions or create new ones is limited by the fact that any salary over £1,060 per annum for officers in the Clerical and Professional Divisions requires individual parliamentary appropriation. All salaries of officers in the Administrative Division must, by statute, be fixed by Parliament. The Commission agrees that Administrative Division salaries should be so fixed. This gives to Parliament the right to set the " ceiling " of Public Service salaries, and no great exception can be taken to this. However, the requirement for individual appropriation for salaries beyond £1,060' for other than administrative officers is a considerable restriction on the Commission in its task of correctly grading officers. The Consultative Committee in 1945 recommended that the requirement for appropriation be lifted to above £1,500. This recommendation has been renewed to Government by the Commission. Staff Turnover Post-war conditions of full employment have resulted in high resignation rates in almost every industry. The Public Service is no exception. Before the war the average annual turnover of staff in the Service was less than 5 per cent. To-day in the permanent staff it is 10 per cent, for males and 25 per cent, for females. Naturally, the heavy rate of turnover causes particular concern to the Commission, since it is required to find replacements for the staff lost. Full details of staff turnover are set out in Table V of the Appendix. To give some idea, however, of the magnitude of the task of recruitment for ordinary replacements of staff it is necessary to find each year approximately 500 typists and machinists, 1,000 male and 800 female clerks and clerical assistants, 100 professional and technical officers, 200 males and 400 females for mental hospitals, dental clinics, and other institutions, and a further 700 males and 200 females for various work. In all, about 4,000 replacements a year are needed. Office Accommodation Accommodation problems persist in most towns where Departments are represented,, but the greatest shortage is still in Wellington. No new buildings have been commenced during the year and the Office Accommodation Board has had to rely on the conversion of old buildings and leases of privately owned space to meet the most pressing demands.

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