CO885-(20-21) — Page 161

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :—

C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

.t

18. Clause 10. It will be observed that the Committee propose to extend to all Colonial pensions, even to cases where retirement was due to injury, the limit of £1,000 which has been adopted in certain of the Eastern Colonies. It will be noticed that in both parts of this clause the words "in respect of other public service prior to service in the Colony" are printed in italics. These words, as stated in the footnote, must be omitted if the second draft of Part II of the Regulations, hereafter to be described, is adopted. The matter will be explained in dealing with questions of mixed service.

19. Clause 11. In dealing with the case of re-employment of West African pensioners, the Committee have omitted the existing provision by which a pension is abated directly the emoluments of the new appointment (if not in West Africa) reach two-thirds of the final emoluments drawn in West Africa. It is understood that the general wish of the West African Departments is in this direction, and independently of that, the Committee observe that niany inequalities have arisen from that rule and they strongly recommend its abolition.

6+

་

20. The phrase salary and fees" has been adopted in this clause in lieu of the phrase "pensionable emoluments," which would not be applicable in cases where the new appointment was not pensionable.

12

21. Clause 13. In the old form of the clause the term "Governor in Council occurs as an alternative to "Secretary of State" in the provision enabling the application of the pension in certain cases for the benefit of the bankrupt or his dependents. The Committee recommend that the power of ordering such application should be confined to the Secretary of State. Certain drafting alterations have also been made so as to keep the two cases of bankruptcy and conviction as far as possible on the same lines.

22. Clause 14. Three changes of principle have been introduced into this clause:

(1) It applies to the sentence passed by any competent Court, not merely a

Court in His Majesty's dominions:

(2) No limit to the sentence is inserted :

(3) It is suggested that the Secretary of State should have power in certain events to apply a pension, in whole or in part, for the benefit of the pensioner himself in the event of his not obtaining a free pardon and serving his sentence.

And, again to secure uniformity, the Committee have drafted the last part of the Clause on the lines of the last part of Clause 13.

23. Clause 15. This is the new clause drafted in connection with the recent decision of the Secretary of State as to officers who may become directors or servants of a company concerned with the Colony. It will be seen that the words "on his final retirement have been omitted froni the draft clause as sent out to the Colonies and Protectorates in Mr. Harcourt's circular despatch of the 28th July, 1913. It has been found from various queries sent home by Colonial Governors that these words lead to ambiguity.

24. It will be noted that in the draft of this clause the word "Colony" is placed in a bracket. This, as indicated in a footnote in the draft, is intended as a suggestion that there may be cases where it is desirable to cover a larger area than the legislating Colony. For instance, the Straits Settlements might wish to include the whole area of the Malay States and one West African Colony might wish to include some or all of the other West African Colonies under the same restriction.

25. Clause 16. The Committee are of opinion that, as the proposed new law is generally more favourable to public officers than the laws which it would replace, it may be taken for granted that the majority of officers will wish to come under it as soon as possible. Nevertheless it is essential that an option should be left for certain cases.

26. There are two ways of dealing with the question of the option to be allowed to officers in the service of a Colony when the Ordinance comes into operation; they might be allowed either an option to remain under the former law to be exercised within a certain period after the commencement of the Ordinance or an option to be exercised at the end of their service as to the law under which they would come.

It is, of course, for the Secretary of State to decide which course is desirable; but the Committee, after full consideration, have embodied in the draft a clause giving the option to officers within one year after the Ordinance comes into operation, with a further right, if they are subsequently transferred from the service of the Colony, of withdrawing that option within one year of the date of such transfer.

27. To prevent possible misunderstanding it is recommended that all officers in the service should be formally notified of this provision of the law, and also warned that if

5

they have had other previous public service it will be desirable for them to ascertain whether the provisions of any new Pensions Law in any other Colonies in which they may have served include a similar option.

REGULATIONS.

28. Turning to the Regulations, the first point to which the Committee wish to call attention is the division of the Regulations into two parts.

29. Part I deals with the simple case of pension in respect of service confined to the particular Colony; Part II is designed to apply the principles of Part I, as far as possible, to the case of officers who have been transferred to or from the service of a Colony from or to other public service.

30. Every regulation has been subjected by the Committee to careful scrutiny, and, after examination of numerous precedents and rulings, every effort has been made to adopt language which will cover or get rid of the difficulties which have occurred in interpreting the existing law. It is, however, only necessary to refer specifically to those regulations in which the Committee either propose a new departure or are in doubt as to two alternatives.

PART I. SIMPLE SERVICE.

31. Regulation 2. This regulation, though it remains in substance the same as under the old law, is completely altered in formi. This re-drafting of the regulation arose out of difficulties in applying the provision to cases of mixed service.

The gratuity, instead of being described in terms of a month's pay, is treated as

a commutation of an annual allowance. A half-month's pay for each six months of service is in fact equal to five times the annual value of pension on the one-sixtieth scale which might have been granted in respect of actual service if there had been no minimum qualifying period. So that for Governments which grant pensions on the one- sixtieth scale there is no change in the rate of gratuity. Similarly, in the case of Govern- ments in West Africa no change of rate is introduced.

32. In the case of those Colonies, however, which adopt the one-fiftieth scale (draft B) an alteration of principle is involved. Hitherto in such Colonies the gratuity has been at the rate of half a month's pay for six months' service with no addition in respect of service in the tropics, and to that extent the person who only receives a gratuity has been worse off than the person who serves long enough to earn a only just and consistent to give like advantages in each case, and the Committee pension. It appears to be recommend this small innovation for approval.

33. Regulation 3. This regulation has been expanded so as to show clearly that the period of years in Regulation 1 means gross service without any deduction in respect of leave and not nett service with such deductions as are specifically provided for in Regulation 5. This question whether the service qualifying for pension is gross service or nett service has in the past given rise to doubt and discussion.

34. Regulation 5. The Committee recommend the abolition of the provisions which have been embodied in most recent legislation for deducting from pensionable service one-half of any leave which was on half-pay. The rule has for a good many years been in force in the Eastern Colonies: but it was not general in pension legislation until the introduction of the recent form of West Indian and West African ordinauces. In the case of Tropical Africa half-pay leave is not ordinarily granted, and in the Eastern Colonies the amount of half-pay leave has recently been reduced and replaced in part by full pay leave. There are, therefore, a comparatively small number of places, such as the West Indian and Western Pacific groups, where the existing regulation has any considerable effect, and it seems hard that officers in those places should suffer both by having less liberal allowances of full pay leave and by having deductions made from pensionable service in respect of half-pay leave. It appears sufficient to limit half-pay leave for pension purposes by the ordinary amount allowed in Colonial Regulation 85.

35. As to the categories embodied in the regulation two points may be noticed. The mention of vacation leave" in drafts A and B covers the rare cases where such leave is actually without salary owing to the exigencies of the particular Colony.

The cmission of the existing limitation to one year in the case of leave granted on public grounds is based upon a recommendation of the Committee in respect of a particular case which was referred to them. In their report on the case the Committee pointed out that the idea of the regulation as it stands in the model is that any Colony inay lend an officer for short periods without requiring a contribution in aid of pension