- 21
་
40. The institution of Municipal Government will involve either
the secondment or the transfer of many officers of the Civil Service to
the service of the Municipality. It is difficult to forecast what may
be the attitude of the service in general towards these two alternatives
but I think it possible that in the case of locally recruited personnel
transfer may prove popular, while in the case of those recruited in the
United Kingdom it is more than probable that there will be a preference
for secondment as preserving a wider field for promotion. It will be
necessary to formulate conditions which will safeguard the terms of
service, prospects of promotion and pension rights of the officers
concerned and after a preliminary exploration of the subject by a
Governmental Committee this matter might well be referred to the Commissid
on the transfer of functions envisaged by paragraph 33.
41. There is one other question to be considered in connection with
the staff of the Municipality. It has been represented to me by
Mr. Hazlerigg and others with more experience of Municipal Government
than myself that it is essential that the new body should from its
inception have the services of a Town Clerk or similarly named official
who must be a lawyer with local government experience. It is thought
that the first occupant of this office should be selected in the United
Kingdom and should be in a position to take up his duties before the
actual constitution by election and nomination of the Council.
The
I am a little reluctant to recommend that the Council should
be committed, before it comes into existence, to the appointment for a
considerable period of one of its most important officials; for I assume
that it would be difficult for such an official to be appointed from the
United Kingdom on anything but a moderately long term contract.
alternative, however, which is that the Council should begin its work
with the services of a seconded Government officer as Town Clerk or
General Secretary, is one which it might not be easy to arrange, having
regard to the specialised qualifications which are thought to be required. The question is one which you will doubtless be able to decide in the
light of the experience of other Colonial Municipalities.