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PENSIONABLE STATUS
162. We see no great merit in the present system of attaching pensionable status not to the officer personally but to the post which he holds and we recommend that this system should be discarded in favour of one whereby an officer qualifies for pension by virtue of having been appointed an "established" civil servant.
AGE OF RETIREMENT
163. We favour the idea that Government should have power to call upon any officer to retire at 45 years of age or thereafter and that officers should have the right of voluntary retirement at or after that age; but our approval is qualified by our inability to gauge what this change would cost the Colony or what measure of dislocation of the public service would result if many officers made use of their right. It is possible that the latter difficulty might be obviated by prescribing that officers wishing to retire at 45 should give at least three years' notice of their intentions.
SUPERANNUATION SCHEMES
164. We have discussed the possibility of the substitution for the present pension system of a superannuation scheme similar to the Federated Super- annuation System for Universities in the United Kingdom but until further details are known of the scheme which according to the White Paper Colonial No. 197 is being worked out by the Colonial Office we can make no recommenda- tion. We consider that the possibility of introducing a superannuation scheme for staff at present drawing basic salaries of less than $420 per annum who now come under the provisions of Pension Regulations C might with advantage be investigated.
AMENDMENT OF PENSION REGULATIONS C
165. We see no reason why monthly paid staff in the lower salary ranges who are not at present on the permanent pensionable establishment should not be granted annual retiring allowances at the same rates as officers on the permanent pensionable establishment, though, since it is desirable to retain the right of dispensing with the services of minor staff at a month's notice, it should not be necessary to give such officers the status of “established" civil servants. We recommend accordingly that unless a superannuation scheme is devised which includes such officers as well as daily paid staff, Pension Regulations C `should be amended to allow all monthly paid officers not on the permanent estab- lishment who have over ten years unbroken service to be eligible for annual retiring allowances and death gratuities at the rates laid down in Pension Regulations B on reaching the prescribed age for retirement.
WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS' PENSION SCHEME
166. We understand that an investigation into the Widows and Orphans' Pension Scheme had been commenced during the war. We are of the opinion that this investigation should be continued and completed in view of the fact that we believe that the present benefits paid by the scheme are maintained only by reason of an undisclosed public subsidy.
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