CO885-(18-19) — Page 351

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

REPORT OF THE INTER-DEPARTMENTAL PENSIONS

COMMITTEE.

1. The Committee was appointed, as a result of correspondence between the Colonial Office and the Treasury, to enquire into the working of the Colonial Governors (Pensions) Acts, the Superannuation (Unhealthy Climates) Act, 1876, and the Superannuation Act of 1892, with a view to advising as to the removal of certain defects which had been found to exist in the Governors' Pensions Acts and the adoption of better arrangements as regards pensions for service under more than one Government and in unhealthy climates.

2. It was agreed that, in addition to representatives of the Treasury and the Colonial Office, the Committee should include a representative of the India Office, as a department experienced in the apportionment of the pensions of officers who have served under different Governments, and a representative of the Foreign Office for that part of the enquiry which would deal with the Superannuation Act of 1876. These subjects were dealt with at the first seven meetings of the Committee, and it was then agreed that the representatives of the Foreign Office and the India Office should remain as members of the Committee until the end of its enquiry, as it was felt that their advice would be equal value in the consideration of Governors' Pensions.

3. We have divided our Report into the following sections:-

I. Service under more than one Government.

II. Additions to pension for unhealthy climate, including certain points affecting these additions in cases of service under more than one Government.

III. Governors' Pensions.

IV. The position of Naval and Military Officers both in regard to civil employment in the Colonies and in regard to appointment as Governors, and

V. A summary of the changes which we recommend in the Imperial Acts.

I, Pensions of Officers who have served under more than one Government.

4. The Imperial Acts on the subject of mixed service are

(1) The Pensions (Colonial Service) Act, 1887, which provides, inter alia,

that,

"where a person who has been employed in any office in the permanent civil service of a colony has been employed also in some Imperial civil capacity, his service in the said office shall for the purposes of the Superannuation Act, 1859, and the Colonial Governors (Pensions) Acts, 1865 and 1872, and the Acts amending the said Acts, be deemed to be service in the permanent civil service of the State, and the said office shall be deemed to be an office in a public department, and the said person shall, subject as hereinafter provided, be qualified to receive a pension accordingly."

This Act is printed in full in Appendix E to this Report.

(2) The Superannuation Act of 1892, which, with the Rules made under it, is included in an Appendix to this Report. (Appendix A.) It will be observed that the Act itself contemplates the grant of the same super- annuation allowance or gratuity to any person as might have been granted to him if his whole service had been in the public office from which he ultimately retires, but that the Rules under the Act fail to secure this result, as they provide that the share of each Government shall be based on the number of years' service and the final salary drawn under that Government, and the separate sums thus arrived at do not amount in the aggregate to the sum contemplated by the Act. These Rules correspond with what has been the usual practice, before as well as after the Act of 1892, as between the Imperial Government and Colonial Govern- ments in cases of mixed service.

5. The practice as between several Colonial Governments is not uniform. The principle of continuous service for pension purposes has never been adopted generally in the Colonies. Its adoption was proposed in a circular dated the 15th July, 1869.* but the proposal was dropped in consequence of objections raised by the Governor of Ceylon, of which the main point was that the final Colony would in all cases hove

See Appendix F.

(26200-2) W, -G,227. 50, 912. D&S.