CO885-5 — Page 467

Miscellaneous

724

Printed for the use of the Cabinet.

Proposed Repeal of the Act 54 Geo. III. Cap. 61. regulating the Leave of Absence of Colonial Officers.

MEMORANDUM.

1. The Act 54 Geo. 3. Cap. 61. has become obsolete as regards those Colonies to which Responsible Government has been granted, because the control of the civil administrative staff in those Colonies is entirely vested in the local Ministers.

2. It has also been superseded as regards the other Colonies by a code of Regulations whereby the objects which the Act was intended to effect are more fully and suitably provided for under the direct control of the Secretary of State.

3. Even if a Secretary of State were disposed to tolerate the abuses which the Act struck at, public. opinion would prevent it.

4. It has further been found desirable that the rule laid down in section 2 should be relaxed to the extent of allowing short periods of vacation leave within limits prescribed by Regulations without the necessity of confirmation by the Secretary of State. This practice has prevailed for a great many years, and the Act has to that extent been disregarded.

5. The hard and fast rule that an officer is ipso facto deprived of his office if his leave is not con- firmed within a month after it is reported, and be does not forthwith return to the Colony, is unneces- sarily harsh, and so is the penalty imposed by section 3 on a Governor who omits to report a grant of leave of absence.

6. The returns required by section 4 have not been given for a long time past, and it is undesirable that the obligation to present them should stand on the Statute Book.

▲ 54989. 50.-7/88. G. 44. Wt. 7092. E. & 8.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.

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