6.29. Three Assistant Planning Officer posts on the permanent establishment were filled during the year by local recruitment and one Land Surveyor and two Planning Officers were recruited on contract. An officer who qualified professionally in the previous year was promoted to Estate Surveyor and two Assistant Planning Officers were promoted to Planning Officer. Vacancies in more senior posts were filled during the course of the year by promotion of serving officers. At the end of the year six vacancies existed for Estate Surveyors, three for Assistant Estate Surveyors, one for a Planning Officer and four for Assistant Planning Officers.
6.30. During the year Mr. T. SEACH, Senior Land Surveyor retired after twenty years service. Mr. Mo Kam and Mr. Chow Lam, Head Chainmen, retired with 36 and 30 years service respectively, and Mr. CHOW On and Mr. LUI Tat-hung, Chainmen, retired with 57 years service between them.
Training
6.31. Surveying Assistants (Engineering, Estate, Land and Planning) are mostly young men with the appropriate academic qualifications, often recruited immediately after leaving school. Joining the Service initially at Class III level, they all attend a six months' comprehensive course in Land Survey and thereafter the Engineering and Land streams are attached to various functional Survey sections for field and practical experience for a further 12 months, whilst the Estate and Planning streams are similarly attached for a further six months before starting with their respective divisions.
6.32. During the year two six months' full-time courses for newly recruited Surveying Assistants (Land) and (Engineering), totalling 30 trainees, were completed at the Technical College at Hung Hom, as well as two six months' courses for a total of 34 Cartographic Assistants from this Office and the New Territories Administration. The instructors were supplied from Survey Division staff. All Surveying Assistants Class III and Cartographic Assistants Class III are required to sit Departmental examinations to obtain promotion to a higher class. During the year 75 sat and 40 passed, compared with 79 and 48 respectively in the previous year.
6.33. Weekly day-release courses were arranged for nine land survey students from the Crown Lands and Survey Office and the Civil Engineering Office, who took the Intermediate examination of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in March 1968. Tuition was also
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