CO537-1651 — Page 129

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40. The institution of Municipal Government will involve either

the secondment or the transfer of many officers of the Civil Service to

the service of the Municipality. It is difficult to forecast what may

be the attitude of the service in general towards these two alternatives

but I think it possible that in the case of locally recruited personnel

transfer may prove popular, while in the case of those recruited in the

United Kingdom it is more than probable that there will be a preference

for secondment as preserving a wider field for promotion. It will be

necessary to formulate conditions which will safeguard the terms of

service, prospects of promotion and pension rights of the officers

concerned and after a preliminary exploration of the subject by a

Governmental Committee this matter might well be referred to the Commissid

on the transfer of functions envisaged by paragraph 33.

41. There is one other question to be considered in connection with

the staff of the Municipality. It has been represented to me by

Mr. Hazlerigg and others with more experience of Municipal Government

than myself that it is essential that the new body should from its

inception have the services of a Town Clerk or similarly named official

who must be a lawyer with local government experience. It is thought

that the first occupant of this office should be selected in the United

Kingdom and should be in a position to take up his duties before the

actual constitution by election and nomination of the Council.

The

I am a little reluctant to recommend that the Council should

be committed, before it comes into existence, to the appointment for a

considerable period of one of its most important officials; for I assume

that it would be difficult for such an official to be appointed from the

United Kingdom on anything but a moderately long term contract.

alternative, however, which is that the Council should begin its work

with the services of a seconded Government officer as Town Clerk or

General Secretary, is one which it might not be easy to arrange, having

regard to the specialised qualifications which are thought to be required. The question is one which you will doubtless be able to decide in the

light of the experience of other Colonial Municipalities.