(2)
salaries to successive Harbour Masters have not
been attended with the success they deserved,
and it is only recently that a serious effort
has been made by the Head of this Department to
substantiate our claim for special consideration.
The salaries which we deem to be
a fair minimum are stated in our original letter,
framed at the invitation of the Commissioners,
and forwarded to the Honourable Harbour Master on
the 21st. November, 1928, a copy of which is
enclosed.
On page 14, Paragraph 86 of the
Report in commenting upon our award the Commiss-
ioners state These officers join the service
late in life compared with others, and require
special training before appointment."
Paragraph 15 page 3 of the Report
states that an officer cannot reasonably expect
to marry on his first joining the Service, and in
Paragraph 16 page 4 it is stated that a fair
marriageable age is considered to be after six
years completed service. Taking this statement
literally and averaging the ages of Public Works
Department Engineers (28.6), European Masters in
the Education Department (28.1), we find that
according to Paragraph 16, they are on marriage-
able scales at 34.6 and 34.1 years respectively,
whereas we (if the note on our late entry to the
Service is ignored) are on a marriageable salary
at 39.4 ye.rs. This age appears to be exceedingly
high and we do not believe it to be Your Lordship's
intention/
209