No 218.
C
402
24314
IR... 14 JU 3
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG.
21st. June, 1913.
Sir,
应 14/1/12-13
2.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your Despatch No. 6 of the 6th. January, 1913, from which I observe
with regret that you are unable to agree to the proposal that Kessrs
E. W. Carpenter and I. M. Xavier should each be granted a bonus at
the rate of £8 a month for the period from the date of ir. Tooker's
retirement (22nd. of last August) to the 31st. of December last.
The consideration which compels me to re-submit
these cases to you is the following. In the Mgineering and Survey
Staff of the Public Works Department no provision is made for temporary vacancies caused by the absence of officers on leave or through sickness. It is obvious that it is not possible to fill such vacancies by introducing substitutes from other Departments or from the Cadet Service as is done in many branches of the Service. The work of the absentees devolves therefore upon some other officers of the Department who, in most cases, already have duties assigned to them which keep them fully occupied and which must be carried on. Especially is this the case in the Buildings Ordinance Branch as all plans of buildings must, by law, either be approved or disapproved within 28 days of being deposited.
The officers engaged on work which cannot be postponed are therefore compelled to work much in excess of the official hours whenever one of their number is absent.
In the case of Public Works Extraordinary, on
the other hand, works which would be undertaken during the presence
HE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LEVIS HARCOURT, K.P.,
&C...
&C..
in