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6. A larger proportion of seniors are now serving in the Registration Branch than in the General Office, though I quite recognize the Superintendent's contention that better material is required in the Registration Branch; however, both Departments have only the same to draw from.
7. My object in addressing the Government now is twofold, firstly to urge that the clerk asked for in C.O. 954, in the Annual Report, and in the draft estimates for 1899-1900 may be engaged without delay. Funds are available from the lapsing salary of Mr. Allen, who drew $60 a month and compensation, his place having been filled by a man at $20 a month.
The second object is to amend the draft estimates for 1900 by asking for the appointment of a Deputy Superintendent of the Registration Branch, an Englishman, at an initial salary of $80 a month.
8. The Superintendent is very fully engaged; there is no one to look after the outer office and the public. The senior clerks have little or no control over the others and, beyond some routine knowledge, are on the same plane of intelligence.
9. Details of some of the most recent mistakes are not entered into; they were the result of absolute ignorance on the part of men of two or three years' service, and revealed such appalling want of intelligence that nothing short of omniscience could frame rules to meet every mistake the staff are capable of making. Multiplication of rules appears only to lead to the utter forgetfulness of all of them.
Dismissal has not been recommended lately because, as has been stated repeatedly, the newcomer is no better than the man he replaces without his routine knowledge.
10. For these reasons, the appointment is recommended of a Deputy Superintendent of the Registration Branch, a man with some intelligence and capable of a limited degree of direction,