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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON'
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Deputy Collector of Customs, a fact which will justify his pay being fixed at Rs.11,000-as an inclusive rate of pay, not one which is shared between departments. We hold the same view regarding the Colonial Postmaster whose pay is already much too low for his work and whose responsibility will be increased. We hesitate to propose an actual increase in the pay of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, but we certainly would not recommend any reduction. On the other hand the reorganization of the Public Works Department does not call for a Deputy Director on a higher pay than Rs.10,000 and that rate should be adopted at the next vacancy. The post of Operating Superintendent of the Railway can certainly be replaced by a junior post on Rs.7,500 as soon as the reorganization is effected, but the senior post may be re- quired in the intervening period. There has been no essential change in the position of the Magistrates, but that position is restricted and there is little chance of promotion. We agree, therefore, that an incremental scale is necessary, but we would place the point of entry at a slightly lower stage and give a longer incremental period than was recommended in 1919.
16. We believe that it will be found of special value, for the purpose of determining rates of pay, that we have grouped together apart from the administrative officers those officers of the Colonial Government who directly represent the scientific and learned pro- fessions. When such posts are treated in isolation, there is apt to be too wide a divergence in the rates offered by different depart- ments.
For posts like these the practice of 1919 is no guide. Existing practice, and the rates of pay of comparable officers on the ad- ministrative side must dominate this issue. We have given careful attention to the rates of pay proposed for the medical services by the Director in his recent scheme of reorganization. His proposed rates, namely Rs.7,000-400-9,000-500-10,000 and Rs.10,500-13,500, if reduced by the 10 per cent. cut, are not dissimilar to the scales of the Colonial Agricultural Service, with which it is very desirable that our proposals should harmonize. The Agricultural rates corre- spond to Rs.6,300-250-7,800-400-9,500-500-12,000 in Class III. We believe that a junior scale of Rs.6,300-250-7,800-400-9,000 would be suitable in the majority of cases, and that more senior officers should receive 9,500-500-12,000. For the resident medical officers at the hospitals who have free quarters we follow the Director in pro- posing fixed and not incremental rates of pay. The Drainage Engineer is on a temporary basis and should also have a fixed rate of pay. The work of the Government Electrician will in the future decline in importance when the electrical systems in the island are fully established, and there is no case for allowing this post the full incremental rise on the senior scale.
The position of masters at the Royal College has not materially altered since 1919, and the scales proposed by the Herchenroder
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Committee bave in these cases much greater force. We have dis- cussed in Chapter V what should be the suitable rate. We propose for them a slightly improved scale with a longer incremental period. There remain two scientific posts which involve administrative as well as professional duties. For the Rector of the Royal College the Herchenroder scale would be inadequate by comparison with the rates of pay of the two groups of the administrative officers which we have examined above. The Senior Geneticist, who holds a post created in 1919, must be considered as the deputy head of the Department of Agriculture, in which he is at present acting as Director. We consider that the case of these two posts can be met by placing them at a higher point in our senior scale and providing that the increments should take them to a higher maximum, on a rate of Rs.11,000-500-13,500. In the case of all these officers we recommend that the general retrenchment should be applied to their present rates of pay: they should then be brought on the in- cremental scales at the point corresponding to their reduced salary. If this is less than a point in the new incremental scale the officer should come on the scale at the next point above.
17. Before passing to the consideration of the clerical service we may refer to a matter on which much stress was laid by the deputation of the Civil Service which we received and by other representative officials, namely, the provision of the cost of passages of officers proceeding on leave outside Mauritius. This subject also engaged the attention of the Herchenroder Committee in 1919. Provision is made annually for this purpose under item 41 of the Miscellaneous Head, 23, but expenditure has been temporarily suspended as a measure of economy.
We are intensely impressed with the need for a concession of this kind in the interest of the efficiency of the Civil Service of the Colony. The conditions of service in Mauritius are so limited and the island is so isolated that frequent leave is a special necessity if an effective standard of work is to be maintained; but the cost of passages froin the island and the length of time which every journey must occupy, time which must be charged against leave, are certain to act as a deterrent unless this concession is made. In dealing with the scholarship fund we have mentioned the need for assisted passages for special professional work, but we think that the concession is equally required for ordinary leave. We urge that a full provision for this purpose should always be made in the budget. We propose,
however, a certain modification in the terms; the concession now suspended applies to the family of an officer as well as to the officer himself; this introduces other considerations than that of the efficiency of the officer and is perhaps the reason why the concession has been suspended in the present crisis. préfer to make the concession in its simplest form and therefore
We
1.