365
therefore, to recommend to Your Lordship is that the whole
system of classification should be abandoned and that an
officer who enters the service as a Cadet should rise con-
-timously throughout his service from the salary of a Cadet to that now proposed to be assigned to Class I. I suggest
that a Cadet should be paid $3,000 a year, and that on pass-
-ing his examinations he should receive $4,000 a year rising by annual incrementa of $250 to 86,000 and then by 8500 annually to $15,000 a year without regard to the post which be may be holding at my time. This would result in an officer's reaching the proposed salary for Class I about the age of 45 or 46 and attaining his maximum at the age of 51 or 52 which appears to me to be a reasonable arrangement.
I am of course aware that such a scheme is open to considerable theoretical objections but I am satisfied that, at least in the case of Hongkong, these objections are not of such practical importance as to counterbalance the advantages which it offers.
--+
It may be argued that such a system removes the incentive of ambition, offends against the principle that a man should be paid according to the import- -ange of the work which he is doing and entails the risk that officers will content themselves with doing the minimun of work which will enable them to qualify for their annual increments. I cannot, however, at the moment recall any case in which an officer's promotion from one dass to another has been expedited owing to his unusual zeal or ability. Very likely there have been cases in the past, but certainly they have not been so numerous as always to be present to the mind of the ambitious young officer as examples to be ———— followed. Payment according to the importance of the work done will really be made as a matter of practice under the proposed system, since the posts of most importance will obviously be held by the men whose age and experience make
them