OP Y.
4
No./
(
Sir.
234
Land Survey Office,
Public Works Department, Hongkong,
26th. January 1912.
250926 AUG 12 We, the undersigned have the honour to point
out that there exists a considerable feeling of dissatisfaction
with regard to the question of salary and emoluments offered to
members of the Survey Department, which now constitutes 1/3 of the whole Public Works Staff (not including overseers &c.). This
feeling we may say has always been extant, and has been the direct
cause of the loss to the Department of several of our most
efficient officers and unless remedied, is likely to be the cause of other members leaving, as better opportunities occur - not to
speak of the demoralising effect that the existence of such a
feeling of being depreciated and overlooked has upon the general
efficiency of the Survey Staff as a whole.
We would point out that this is a most im-
-portant Department, and that the officers engaged to serve in it
have to hold high qualifications in their profession, only obtain-
-ed by a considerable term of training and experience; and yet the
prospects held out are merely of rising to a sclary of £420 pər
annum, and generally speaking of remaining on that salary for a
period of over 20 years before retiring, without the hope of any
further advancement, whereas other officers of the Public Works
Department start on a higher, and have every prospect of eventual-
-ly rising to a pensionable salary of at least £630 per annum, not including allowances.
It has come to our notice that the Assistant
Ingineers have recently been granted a dut, allowance of £40 per
annum whereas we as a Department have in this respect been entire-
-ly overlooked. It has also been pointed out that the increased
cost of living in Hongkong so affected the Engineering branch of
the Department that it was found expedient to grant them a duty allowance in order to assist them in meeting this increase of
Page 240Page 271
}