Miscellaneous.
No. 124.
240
Memorandum on the Organization of the Staff of the Emigrants' Information
Office.
-
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TLC.O.885.
سلسا
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Confidential.
The Committee which enquired into the working of the Office in 1896 reported as follows :-
"Under the head of Management,' your Com- mittee have also carefully considered the question of any improvement in the present arrangements in the conduct of the Office, and they are of opinion that, at a convenient senson, when any alteration of the personnel of the Office should take place, it would be desirable to combine the offices of editor and chief clerk. If this were done, it would be necessary to have a good second division clerk under the editor, and a boy writer.
"The above arrangement would hardly lessen expenditure, as it would, of course, be necessary to raise the salary of the new chief of the Office beyond I that now paid to the editor or chief clerk, which, in either case, is now £270. It is thought, however, that it would be well to have the control of the Office in the hands of one responsible person, who should give his whole time to the work and be at the Office all the time it is open, and who should be accessible to the clerk at any time when a question of any difficulty or complexity arises. It would also be the duty of the new chief of the Office to overlook the correspondence, and to reply to
any letters requiring information beyond the knowledge of the clerk."
This report was approved by the Committee. The pay of the present chief clerk is £300, and he was informed in September, 1896, that his services would probably be discontinued in three years from 31st December, 1896, his salary being raised from £270, as it then was, by £10 to £300, as no hope could be given of any retiring allowance. It is therefore open to the Committee to reorganise the Office, on the basis accepted in 1896, at any time after the begin- ning of the New Year.
The pay of the editor was in 1896 fixed at, and is now, £350 a year. He at present does all the editing work, which is heavy, and undoubtedly the most important part of the work of the Office, and also some miscellaneous work in visiting branches.
The best arrangement, which would be in conson- ance with the report of the Committee quoted above, would seem to be that the present editor should be appointed to the combined post of editor and chief
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