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13. To this it may be replied, that the weaknesses of human nature are not peculiar to the Government of autonomous Colonies; that inexperience in Colonial life, a con- stant supply of which is suggested for their benefit, is not a recommendation for Colonial employment; that the application of the hampering rule, by the mother country, is not confined to military employments, but extends to the Colonial Civil Departments, that practical inefficiency as regards colonial interests is no more likely to be the result of continued experience in the Colonies than it is in the Imperial service; that the ages of 62 and 67 years, up to which it is considered by the Imperial authorities, Major- Generals and Lieutenant-Generals, may, as a rule, be mentally and physically efficient in the Queen's service, is not likely to be exceeded in the Colonial service in either military or civil employments; that the fundamental constitution of autonomous unconies endows the Governments of these Colonies with the responsibility for the appointments they may make; and that it is consequently inconsistent, if not absolutely Colonstitutional, to hamper the exercise of that responsibility by the provisions of Royal Warrants in the mother country,-which provisions are liable to be altered from day to day on the mere recommendation of Departmental Ministers in England without reference to the Colonial Governments which they affect.

14. This point does not call in question the undisputed right of the Home Govein- ment to regulate what is purely the affair of the mother country; but it does question the propriety of that Government establishing rules which are admittedly directed towards hampering the free action of the Colonies in affairs which, under their Constitu- tion, are unreservedly assigned to the management of their own Governments.

15. As noted above, the motive of economy on the part of the Home Authorities has been repudiated, and it is alleged that, on the contrary, the system adopted involves greater expense to the mother country.

The point is not one which affects the merits of the question in any greater degree than that it is opposed to the contention that economy is the result of the system, but a word or two on the subject may be opportune.

16. The whole tendency of the spirit of Art. 6 of the Appropriation Act, 1870, which the Home Authorities by Royal Warrant make applicable to retired pay, is one

economy of expenditure.

of

This spirit is clearly and fully expressed in sub-section 44 of that article. It runs as follows:-

"Where the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury are of opinion that the employment of military officers in the Colonies or elsewhere in civil situations of responsibility with small emoluments will be conducive to economy, and thereby beneficial to the public service, the said Commissioners may authorise the receipt of balf-pay by military officers, notwithstanding their employment in a civil situation."

If then the Rules of the Appropriation Act, 1870, with regard to half pay are made applicable by the Home Authorities to the issue of retired pay also, it is only reasonable to assume that the intention was to apply those Rules in the spirit of the Act of 1870. But, on the contrary, it is alleged that the application of the rules is not in this spirit, but involves greater expense.

How this greater expense is incurred it is somewhat difficult to discover.

A full-pay Officer employed by a Colonial Government is seconded and ceases to draw any pay from Imperial funds; his place in the Army is filled up; and on the completion of his colonial employment he is not reabsorbed on to the full pay list until a vacancy occurs. Thus, while absent from duty with the Queen's Army, he has put the mother country to no additional expense.

17. The reference to what has occurred in the case of Militia adjutants in England may be instructive in illustrating an error in the system at home, but it hardly justifies the assumption that it is therefore the right and duty of Ministers in the Home Government to interfere in internal affairs of autonomous Colonies with a view to preventing the possibility of analogous mistakes being committed by the Ministers of those Colonies.

18. It is unnecessary to discuss at any length the bearing of the Imperial Military Retired Pay Rules upon the personal interests of the officers concerned.

This part of the subject may be shortly stated as follows:-

In no case can the officers be benefitted by the limiting regulations; in many cases they are very serious losers, and this simply that the Home Government may either economise or acquire indirectly influence in colonial appointments.

The penal liability to forfeiture of retired pay operates against officers at the very time when, under the new organisation, many of them, not yet old men, are compelled

• Appendix III.

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to seek for suitable remunerative employment by which to supplement the pensions they have earned.

Their past public service has withheld them from associations which might now aid in obtaining occupation, and has barred their entrance into any of the learned professions; and when thus handicapped it is that the Imperial rules are enforced to still further weight Retired Officers in this struggle to compete with adverse circumstances.

19. Early in these remarks (para. 2) it stated that the rule limiting the issue of retired pay is believed to be founded on a strained interpretation of the provisions of the Royal Warrant of 1884 (Arts. 990 and 991).*

The term "civil situation" occurring in these Articles † is held by the Imperial Military Finance Department to include any employment, civil or military, under a Colonial Government, whether of a Crown Colony or of an autonomous Colony.

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In the preface to the Royal Warrant, 1884, page x., the sense in which the term civil situation" is used is defined to be-

any employment of profit, at home or abroad, under a Department of the State not subject to the Secretary of State for War, except service with the Army in India."

It will probably be considered reasonable to assume that the term "a Department of

the State refers to one of the Home Government Departments under one of Her Majesty's Secretaries of State for the Home Government.

The question then arises whether an appointment made on the responsibility of the Government of an autonomous Colony can be fairly said to be employment under a Secretary of State for the Home Government.

The answer " No" cannot be a doubtful one.

But this answer, if correctly arrived at, excludes the applicability of the Arts. 990-991

to the case of Retired Officers in the employment of the Governments of autonomous Colonies.

That the view here advanced may be the more clearly understood there will be found in Appendix V.‡ the origin of the definition of the term "civil situation,” Art. 6 of the Appropriation Act of 1870, collated with the successive definitions given as found in in some subsequent Royal Warrants, which at the time of their issue embodied the outstanding provisions of all previous Warrants.

Premising that while the Appropriation Act of 1870,§ in laying down rules for the future, makes no mention of retired pay, it is to be observed that previous Appropriation Acts, as, for example, that of 1863 (Art. 25),|| deals with both retired pay and half pay, but they place no restrictions upon the issues of retired pay. It is alunost manifest that the Legislature, in making this distinction, regarded half pay as grants for services yet to be rendered, while retired pay was considered as already earned.

But the provisions of the Royal Warrants had for general intention to assimilate the restrictions upon retired

pay to such as bad been imposed by the Legislature upon the issue of half· pay.

"

Consequently, the term civil employment or situation" is found imported from the Appropriation Act into the Royal Warrants; but as no definition of the term is given in the Appropriation Act, the Royal Warrant gathers the material for a definition from the context in the Appropriation Act.

These Royal Warrant definitions are open to the objection that they are liable to vary the intention of Acts of Parliament, and as a matter of fact it will be seen from Appendix V. that in the present case the Royal Warrant definitions have been from time to time varied according to the personal view of the official concerned in drafting them,

On reference to Art. 6 (3) and (4) of the Appropriation Act of 1870,--and it is similar to the provisions of previous Acts,-it will be found that Sub-Art. (3)§ deals with "military employment of profit under Her Majesty, or in Her Majesty's Colonies or possessions beyond the seas," excepting staff or garrison appointments, &c.

In antithesis the next Article (Sub-Art. 4) deals with "civil employment of profit under Her Majesty, or in Her Majesty's Colonies or possessions beyond the seas." these Articles be read literally, no Half-pay Officer, and now no Retired Pay Officer who has remunerative employment of any kind whatever, would receive his pay; but it may fairly be assumed that the words "at home" are to be understood after "under Her Majesty," and that the condition which governs the case is "the service being under Her Majesty;" for in the Appropriation Act of 1863, Art. 27, it is expressly stated that the intended condition of withholding half pay is the enjoyment of "place or employment of profit under Her Majesty” or “under Crown patronage."

Appendix I.

† Ibid.

+ Appendix V.

§ Appendix III.

|| Appendix VI.

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