220
B. Technical Staff.
APPENDIX XI.—continued.
£250, by increments of £15, to £350 in the case of the sub-section heads, and to £400 in the case of the senior section heads.
CLASS II.-DEPUTY HEADS OF DEPARTMENT. A. Clerical Staff.
Deputy heads of department £370, by increments of £20, to £150.
B. Technical and Professional Staff.
The assistant to chief accountant.
The deputy head of Works Department. The two assistants to the chief inspecting en- gineer.
£420, by increments of £20, to £500.
CLABB I.-HEADS OF DEPARTMENT.
A. Clerical Staff.
The registrar of inscribed stocks.
The chief cashier.
The head of General Stores Department.
The head of Shipping and Checking Depart
ment.
The head of Miscellaneous Department.
£475, by increments of £25, to £600.
B. Technical and Professional Staff.
The chief accountant £525, by increments of £25,
to £700, with an additional £100 as chief clerk.
The head of the Works Department.
The head of the Engineering Inspection Depart-
ment..
The secretary.
£700, by increments of £25, to £1,000.
LADY CLERKS.
£70 to £150, by increments of £10, up to £100, and £5 from £100 to £150.
Two deputy heads of department £185 to £200, by incréments of £15.
Two heads of department £220 to £250, by incre ments of £15.
The Crown Agents consider that the above scale of salaries and increments is generally suitable to the requirements of their office, but circumstances may from time to time arise in which departure from the scale may be desirable. The position of the Crown Agents' Office is exceptional and cannot properly be compared with that of any Civil Service Office, as the Crown Agents have accepted the responsibility of making compensation for mistakes made by themselves or their staff. It is therefore essential that they should have power to recognise exceptional ability or merit in members of their staff either by special increments or personal allowances as the circumstances of each case may render desirable. They must siso retain the power to stop increments or degrade or dismiss any member of their staff in case of necessity.
The Crown Agents propose to recommend to the Secretary of State that the clerks of the IVth Class shall be placed on the establishment of the office, and that the privileges of the insurance scheme shall be extended to them, the amount of the insurance being fixed at £1,000. The other insurances will remain as at present, but will be regulated by classes and not by salary, viz. :-
Class 1-£3,000.
Class II.-£2,000.
Class III. £1,500. Class IV. £1,000.
Crown Agents' Office,
24th September, 1908.
APPENDIX XII.--continued.
venture to think that we may appeal to your judgment as to this work having been well and accurately per- formed. This has been only rendered possible by a system inherited by us from the time when the cloth- ing, accoutrements, and necessaries for the Army abroad passed through our hands and improved upon as occasion required, and by the employment of thoroughly reliable and experienced packers trained up by us from boyhood.
We also use none but the best materials, especially London tarpaulin, which we regard as the only reli- able protection from damage by wet, and double soldered tin cases. In fact, we have always regarded cost as a secondary consideration to that of a thorough protection to the contents of our packages, and it should be added that a large proportion of your stores require not only protection to the port of discharge, but are exposed also to risk of damage in transit up country to ultimate destination.
221
The above remarks are not intended to apply to the question of the store, regarding which, however, we find the amount of work, both clerical and warehouse, far beyond what we had anticipated, and which, taken by itself, is hardly covered by the allowance of £400 per annum made for it.
As you intimated a wish to have some estimate of the relation of our expenses incurred to the charge made, we would state that, after a careful examina- tion of our accounts based on an average of the last five years, we find that the fixed charges on your busi Less amount to 28 per cent., and the wages and materials to 57 per cent.-together 84 per cent.-on the charge made.
If any further explanations are required we are quite prepared to appear to give ovidence before the Com- mission if so desired.
We are, &c.,
(Sd.) HAYTER & HATTER
(Signed)
E. E. BLAKE.
M. A. CAMERON.
W. H. MERCER.
Gentlemen,
APPENDIX XII.
LETTER FROM MESSRS. HAYTER AND HATTER TO THE CROWN AGENTS. (See No. 4894.)
Cole Abbey Chambers,
Lambeth Hill, E.C.
4th November, 1908.
With reference to our recent interview on the subject of our duties in respect of your business and the charges consequent thereon, we take leave to sub- mit the following observations for your consideration. We would begin by saying that the mere packing of the goods, highly important as this is with a view to their safe and accurate delivery at their destination, is really not more than half of the duty discharged by us. We would point out the following services ren- dered quite apart from packing for which no charge is made, and which from the nature of the case must be performed on the spot and by those responsible for the carrying out of the orders.
We provide for the exclusive use of your inspectors a whole floor of our warehouse No. 44, specially re- built for his accommodation, and a well-lighted room, at No. 36 for the boot and leather inspector. We also provide capable assistants to wait upon the inspectors and place before them the various articles, ready sized and sorted according to the inspection notes furnished them by us.
When garments are passed, we have to re-sort and eize them, and in the case of cloth and serge, to measure and fold for packing; and in the event of their being rejected all this has to be done over again. We had recently no less than 8,000 articles rejected for various reasons on our premises at a time. We need hardly
point out that all this involves a considerable outlay in rent and wages. We do not wish to labour the matter too much, but we cannot refrain from adding that the clerical work involved by the peculiar nature of your business is very considerable.
We may instance the enormous quantity of documents required in proportion to the bulk of the packages, the endless variety and minutie of the articles ordered, and the absolute necessity of keeping an accurate record of every article that passes through our hands. In addi tion to the particulars furnished to your office and to the inspection notes above referred to, we have to give your shipping agents measurements and detailed con- tents of all packages, together with values for Customs entry. We have also to furnish contractors with particulars of their goods shipped as a basis for their invoices. In short, we do not think we are going too far in saying that our work is rather that of a branch of your office than merely a packers' business, and as a remuneration for all this we have only our packing charges to look to. It should also be borne in mind that the fixed charges incurred in the above duties remain the same whether the business is much or little, while the amount charged fluctuates considerably.
We should like, in conclusion, to say one word as to the packing taken by itself. This differs consider- ably, at least as regards a large proportion of your orders, from ordinary commercial packing owing to the great variety of the stores to be packed, their dif- ferent destinations, and the special conditions as to weight, etc., which have to be considered, and we
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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