One of the present staff, whom I should lose, worked here for four years without salary; another has been here three. Considering the overwhelming pressure under which the work of this office has sometimes to be done, it is very undesirable to refuse assistance offered on such terms. Moreover, the principle of probationership is accepted in almost every Postal administration.
The cost of the Indian Post Office would be enormously increased but for the hundreds of candidates for employment who are content to work without salary. The Post Office, moreover, is eminently a Department for which an officer needs training. A beginner is worse than useless. A probationer, being to some extent an extra hand, picks up a knowledge of his duties in the course of a few months, and at the end of a year or two is ready for responsible work, if he is fortunate enough to obtain an appointment.
On the other hand, when a vacancy does occur, either the competitive examination system of the Government must be set aside, or else a grave injustice must be done to the probationer, who may have worked patiently for two or three years, as well as to those officers who have had the drudgery of teaching him, and who (besides being hampered with a raw recruit) must begin afresh to instruct a lad who may have no qualification - except the gift of passing examinations.
It seems to me that the only fair and satisfactory course is that which I recommended C.L.C.4030 of 1882, viz. to hold an examination...