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(6) The cut should not apply to rates of pay at present below Rs.600 and should not have the effect of reducing the pay of any other post below Rs.600.
For reasons which we must discuss in greater detail
(7) The cut should not apply to the Police Force or to the officials (other than general service clerks) of the Post Office or to the clerks of the Railway Department, or to members of the Ecclesiastical Department, or to nurses or sisters of charity. or to teachers of primary schools, or to the lighthouse staff.
(8) The cut should not be made in certain cases which we will mention in our comprehensive scheme for future rates of pay. It is hardly necessary for us to add that this scheme of reduction does not apply to the case of the Governor's salary: this has already been reduced.
For the full year we estimate at Rs.315,866 the total effect of this retrenchment, as applied to all services, including those paid from special funds, and to all posts including those which would be abolished by our departmental reorganization. The immediate
saving in the budget year should therefore be Rs.157,933. The total for 12 months includes Rs.35,271 for retrenchment in the Railway Department.
10. It is evident that a scale of pay which was framed to suit the needs of 1919 cannot be an absolute guide in 1932, although it pro- vides a valuable standard for fixing the maximum down to which any reduction should be made. Many of the older departments remain approximately what they were in 1919, but others have been radically altered and some also will be greatly affected by our pro- posals. Apart, too, from the departments as a whole, it is only necessary to look at the table prepared by the 1919 Committee showing the rates of pay proposed for the superior officers, in order to realize that the rates of 1919 are in many cases unsuitable for the present responsibilities of the posts or for the readjustment of duties which we have recommended.
Our first proposal in modification of the general scheme of retrenchment is that it should not apply to any member of the Police Force. We have heard from many witnesses that there has been a real improvement in the Police Force, and this improvement has been of comparative recent date. It must continue to rest not only on higher standards and stronger discipline, but also on the maintenance of relatively high rates of pay. We regard the continued progress of the Police Force as a first essential in the administration of the Colony, and it will have been seen fron chapter III that we propose to add not inconsiderably to their responsibilities. The Inspector-General of Police is conspicuous among the superior officers of the Colony in having had no increase of pay since the Herchenroder Committee, the Denham Commission
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having left the post unchanged. The increases in the pay of officers and men subsequent to the former Committee have been small. We recommend that no retrenchment of pay should be made from any member of the Police Department.
We have been much struck by the low rate of pay allowed to the clerks of the Postal and Railway Departments whose work is by no means less arduous than that of most of the clerks in the general service, nor do we believe that it is less well done. We recommend that these clerks should be excepted from the general scheme of retrenchment, and in paragraph 23 we propose that 66 postal and railway clerks should be admitted to the new scheme of pay for clerical service which we have prepared. Our proposals add considerable responsibility to the work of the deputy post- masters, whose pay is already very low: they should be excluded from retrenchment as also should the mailmen and letter carriers for the reasons which we have considered in the case of the police. We are confident that the exclusion of the Ecclesiastical De- partment, of nurses and sisters of charity, primary school teachers and lighthouse staff will be generally supported.
Appendix II shows in full detail the effect of our recommenda- tions in regard to the other departments.
11. In order to scrutinize the rates of pay of superior posts it is necessary not only to tabulate but to classify them, in order to bring out the great variation in the importance of departments, the distinction between the responsible heads of departments and their superior assistants and to separate, except in the highest adminis- trative grades, the officers of scientific services from those whose experience has been only in general administration.
Appendix II1 is a statement of :--
(I) Superior administrative posts. (II) Lesser administrative posts. (III) Teclinical officers.
Each of these tables is arranged so as to indicate a sectional classification within the group, for it is obvious that there is a very varying measure of responsibility resting on officers in each of these groups. The figures are those of the rates of pay recom- mended by the Herchenroder Committee, the present rates (in- cluding allowances), the rates reduced by the general retrenchment in those cases where we propose reduction, and the rates which we recommend as the future rates, to be adopted immediately where we recommend an increase, or to be adopted on the occur- rence of a vacancy when we recommend a further reduction.
12. We are greatly impressed with the importance of the posts of the Colonial Secretary and the Procureur General, who are the chief advisers on, respectively, the financial and legal aspects of every act of the Government. They have therefore a regulating
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