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Reference :-
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sum thereby provided is, with some recent additional contributions, nominally £600 in excess of what was considered necessary before the War (see table 2), but at the present value of money it is actually less. If the Bureau is to function effi- .ciently, to increase the staff when it becomes necessary, and to pay the members salaries such as will retain their services, the income must be increased. I would here mention that having regard to the output and character of the work the office staff is decidedly small. To the application and zeal which its members have shown the success attained by the Bureau is due, but there is no margin, and when there are absences through illness or holiday those left at work are over- taxed. Moreover the business side has increased owing to the Bureau's undertaking the sale of its own publications, and it is still increasing. For the above reasons I am asking the Committee to raise more money. The proposed items of expen- diture, additional to those of last year, are set down in a separate column in the Estimate of Expenditure for 1921-22 (see below, Table 1).
PROPOSALS.
Director-Sir H. Read will make proposals under this head. Assistant Director.-When the Bureau was founded in 1912 the staff included an Assistant Director. With the War the appointment lapsed, and I have carried Till a year ago on without assistance of the kind for nearly six and a half years. I could manage this, though it meant curtailment of holidays, but the work has now increased and is more than one man can properly manage. I propose that the gentleman appointed should give two whole days a week to the work and act for the Director for a month in the summer. He should receive salary at the rate of £300 a year at least. I incline to think he should receive an additional sum when acting as Director. The Assistant Director will undertake one of the Sectional Editorships, so that the real addition to the Bureau's expenditure will, on the above scale, be not more than £250, or within £300 if higher remuneration is fixed.
Sectional Editors and Editor of the Tropical Veterinary Bulletin. (a) An increase of the old scale, fixed in 1912, should not be delayed. I propose as an instalment an addition of 20 per cent., which is, of course, not sufficient to com- pensate the lessened value of money, but I hope later to get the Committee's sanc- tion to raise it by another 30 per cent. The present proposal means an additional £170 per annum. In return I propose that each Sectional Editor should agree to furnish once a year a critical summary of recent progress in the subject or one of the subjects of which he is in charge. This should not be onerous, will be of great use to the less expert readers who find it hard to distinguish between papers which advance knowledge and those which do not, and, moreover, this was a part of the scheme which I submitted in 1912, and which would have come into opera- tion probably in 1915 if the War had not intervened. The increased honorarium of the Editor of the Tropical Veterinary Bulletin would be without conditions.
(b) I propose to introduce a section on the important subject of Eye Diseases in the Tropics, which Colonel Elliot, I.M.S. (retired), is willing to undertake. This will be a £25 a year subject, or if (a) is approved £30.
Reviewers. In comparison with other journals the Bulletin reviewers are badly paid. The present rate is £1 per 1,000 words, with a minimum of 10s. for 500 words or less.
I propose an addition of 50 per cent. with a minimum of 15s. The estimated increase for the year is not more than £25.
Storekeeper and Despatch Clerk-Up to now the store of Bulletins has been looked after by Captain Sheppard and one of his assistants, and the despatching has been done by a boy under supervision. There is now, owing to increase of other work, not time to look properly after the store, which is disturbed whenever back numbers of the Bulletin are required, and the despatch of the Bulletins is not as prompt as it should be. The work is too heavy for a boy. I propose to get a man, possibly a partly disabled ex-soldier, at £3 10s. a week. He will be fully employed as there are other duties which an intelligent man can undertake. The Bulletin envelopes are now addressed by the Stationery Office, but the system does not work very well owing to lack of promptitude in the changing of addresses. The I propose to purchase an Addressograph, which the despatch clerk would use. cost will be about £30, which can be met from the savings on the present financial year.
As I am uncertain at what figure a suitable man can be found I have put down £200.
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Increments. I think that the salary of everyone in the office, with the pos- sible exception of the boy, should advance by a fixed sum yearly. This is to the advantage of the Bureau, as I find it takes six months before real efficiency is attained by the secretarial staff, and changes are, therefore, unprofitable. I put forward the following increments as suitable :----
(1) Librarian and Secretary
2) Assistant Secretary
Present salary.
Annual increment. Limit.
£
£
£
450
25
600
200
15 15
300
275
(3) Second Assistant Secretary 175
As (2) and (3) would not come into operation before 1st October the increase in 1921-22 would be £40, and in subsequent years £55. think that the increase in income from sales and advertisements should provide this. The case of the store- keeper and despatch clerk, if the appointment is approved, can be considered at a later date.
These proposals, taken together, may seem to the Committee to represent a large advance in expenditure, but it must be remembered that the Bureau has hitherto been administered on a very conservative basis; the staff has been small compared with those we are accustomed to read of in our newspapers, and the salaries are low. If we are to carry out the programme we shall probably require additional contributions of at least £1,000 per annum, and these, I think, the Colonial Office can obtain. I would here mention that it would be to the advan- tage of the Bureau if the Colonial Office contributions could be got in early in the financial year. At present we do not know when to expect them, and many do not reach us till nine months have elapsed. Some of the contributions are for the financial, others for the calendar, year, which is a source of some confusion when estimates are got out.
ARTHUR G. BAGSHAWE.
4th January, 1921.
Table 1.
ESTIMATE OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1921-22.
Jamaica
Trinidad
Gold Coast
Estimated Receipts.
£
Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid Colonial Contributions--
8. d. 1,000 0 0
£
8. d.
South Africa
300
0 0
100
0 0
50 0 0
150 0 0
Nigeria
200 0
0
50 0 0
Federated Malay States...
100 0 0
50 0
0
Ceylon
100 0
0
100
0
0
British Guiana
100 0 0
100
0
0
200 0
0
100 0 0
Gambia
Fiji
Sierra Leone
Hong Kong Australia Zanzibar
Sudan Contribution India Contribution British North
Contribution
Borneo
Sarawak Contribution
300 0 0
500 0
0
Company's
50 0 0 50 0
0
Interest on 5 per cent. War Loan
Stock (including recovered Income Tax)
Tropical Diseases Bulletin and
Tropical Veterinary Bulletin sales and advertisements
OO
3,600 0 0
87 10 0
800 0 0
£4,487 10 0
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Estimated Expenditure.
Proposed additional expenditure.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.