PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
6
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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Mr. Chamberlain mentioned Mr. Lionel Holland, M.P., as a suitable member, and I think the Colonial Institute ought to be represented.
be at least once a fortnight.
I gather that the Committee are not in favour of having representatives of the Colonies on the Committee.
There at are present two vacancies, and there is no particular reason for rigidly adhering to the original number of members. By Mr. Town leaving us we have lost a labour member, and a very useful
one.
4. Staff and Work.-I have notified to the chief clerk in writing that he will probably have to retire at the end of three years from the 1st of January next, and that, in order to help him to make provision for the future, his pay will rise by 101. in On his retirement it will be each of the three years. possible to effect some saving; but the Committee must not count on much.
The position of the editor I brought before them some time since, proposing (though my proposal was not accepted) to take Mr. Paton's whole time, and pay him, instead of 2701., 3501. to 4001. per annum. At present Mr. Paton is paid a fixed salary for a specific amount of work. He is responsible for all the editing work of the Office as it originally stood, together with the "Labour Gazette" paragraph. His work is probably heavier year by year, as year by year there is more to be said about the Colonies.
Under existing circumstances that system is the best I could devise, but it has disadvantages. We cannot put more on the editor without paying him Thus I have done nothing yet to carry out the decision taken at the Committee's last meeting, that a special emigration pamphlet for women should be prepared.
more.
The editing as to foreign countries and tropical colonies has been done by Mr. Egerton mainly, and to a very small extent by me.
Mr. Egerton wishes to give up his share of the work and he has submitted his views in a separate letter; either some of the work now being done(must be given up, or it must be done either by volunteers or by paid men.
I am entirely opposed to giving up any work which any hard-and- we have been doing, or to laying down fast rule whatever as to what should or should not be done in the future. We cannot better the recommen- dation of the late Committee, "that foreign countries "to which there is any considerable emigration should "be included in the purview of the Office," and that recommendation we accepted.
I think it is hopeless to look to volunteers to work If we can secure their as Mr. Egerton has worked.
attendance on the Committee, and especially on the Sub-Committee, and their active interest in settling what work shall be undertaken, and how it should be carried out, it is as much as should be expected.
This editing work, then, if done, must, I think, be done by a paid man.
The chief clerk will have enough to do with the ordinary correspondence and business work of the
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Office. The Colonial Office representative certainly could not do it all, and in my opinion had better do little or none, being left to give his time to super- vision, which ought to include supervision of editing as well as of other work.
I cannot propose any alternative so satisfactory as taking the editor's whole time, entrusting him with whatever editing the Committee decide upon from time to time, and putting him also in charge of the branches, paying him, as I suggested, 350l. per annum, rising by two annual instalments of 251. to 4001.
If the Committee again negative this proposal, the present arrangement must be continued, and extra pay must be given for such extra books as the editor shall be asked to undertake. I can only repeat that, in my opinion, the Office will not be carried on as it should be until there is a strong Sub-Committee, meeting fortnightly, and constantly arranging, under the guidance of a paid chairman, new work to meet new requirements, which work shall be carried out by an editor whose whole time is at their disposal.
The Committee may think I am proposing much more expenditure on staff than there has been bither- This is so, and the Office will not be kept in proper efficiency without more expenditure. This had better be realised at once now that the Grant is being increased.
to.
Miscellaneous. It is usual to choose at this autumn meeting a Sub-Committee for the coming year, and also to settle a budget of expenditure for the coming year. As to the first point, we must
As to
wait to see who our new members will be. the second, the Committee must first decide on what I have now laid before them. Moreover, the increase to the Grant may possibly not take effect till the beginning of the new financial year (1st April 1897). The new Sub-Committee ought to take in hand and carefully consider the Agent Generals' letters printed in the Parliamentary paper [C.-8256].
C. P. LUCAS. 14th November 1896.
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