HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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Government is satisfied that no excessive demands have been made in the Estimates now before you, in view of the retirements that can already be foreseen.
The creation of a new section in the Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff is quite a separate matter and is an experiment designed to meet an untenable position with a minimum of expense. You cannot man forty-one posts with a staff of forty nine if one fifth of their number are always on leave. It so happens that during the current year the number of cadet officers on leave has been much below the true proportion and it has been possible to mitigate the difficulties of the clerical position by placing cadet officers in the two clerical posts at the Magistracies. It is only at the Magistracies that cadet officers have been employed in clerical duties. But next year the disproportion of cadet leaves is in the other direction and we shall have great difficulty in manning the cadet posts if we are not to detain certain cadet officers in the Colony beyond their proper term.
The references to the post of the Director of Education are. not altogether clear, but I take it, the meaning is that the hon. member who made the reference would like to see trained educational experts from Home in charge of the Department. The question is one that has been with us for a long time and is full of difficulties. It is obviously open to argument that acquaintance with the Chinese and their mentality is at least as essential a part of the equipment of the Director of Education as is the purely academic side of his training-and we are fortunate indeed when we can get both requirements satisfied as in the case of Mr. de Martin. Further, especially in
Further, especially in a small service it is necessary to consider the effect of demanding specialisation in appointments. Unless we can be content with the wider kind of specialisation that deals with a knowledge of the Chinese, a watertight compartment will be called for, strengthened to allow for absences on sickness or
on sickness or on leave; no transfers between Departments will be possible and the expense of the personnel will be increased. It is a difficult choice, but the method Government has chosen during all these years of appointing a selected cadet to be Director of Education cannot be called unsuccessful. It is further a practice which finds justification in the views of the Retrenchment Commission.
the
The same speaker suggested the comprehensive contracting out of the larger public works. In very large works requiring the highest specialised experience there is nothing to be said against this view; and the Gorge Valley Dam is a good instance where Government has at least gone a long way towards accepting it. But in less specialised works the problem is not the same. An analysis of the suggestion shows that it means alteration of existing departmental methods only to the extent of entrusting to outside firms the duties of designing and of overseeing. I wonder
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