CO129-190 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [10-12] — Page 223

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I pass over the vagueness of the test to be applied by the Board of Examiners to whose discre tion it is left to decide what "a competent knowledge of Chinese may mean and how it is to be ascertained in view of the fact that the paragraph evidently does not confine its application to com- petency in practical interpretation. The chief defect of the scheme lies in this, that the tendency of the old scheme to turn a Cadet after two or three years' study of Chinese away from interpretation work on to the high-road for the higher offices of the Civil Service has, as far as I can see, not been amended by this new scheme. The higher offices are indeed not expressly mentioned in the new scheme, but they are evidently referred to all the same by the words "eligible for promotion in the Civil Service of Hongkong." The old scheme honestly made a distinction of higher and lower offices and classed, by implication, Interpreters' posts among the lower offices. The new scheme omits the distinction in name, but leaves the fact that Interpreters' posts are really lower offices, and that the higher offices in the Civil Service are open to Cadets by promotion, all the same as before. The gen- tlemen who come out under the new scheme are in the same position and will go the same way as those who came out under the old scheme.

It does not even appear as if the Revised Scheme had actually superseded the old Cadetship Scheme of 1861. For the Cadet who was sent out to Hongkong in 1879, came out under an agreement with the Crown Agent, the terms of which are, with the exception of the amount of salary, literally taken from the old Scheme. This Cadet has in fact come out, as all the former Cadets, under a covenant with the Government stating that after three years' study of Chinese he is eligible for the higher offices in the Civil Service, and be frankly states that he does not intend to become an Interpreter, but aims at qualifying himself for those higher offices.

I do not see that the new scheme alters the position of affairs to any appreciable extent. The new Cadetship Scheme is in my opinion no more calculated to supply Interpreters than the old scheme. As long as the Chinese language requires a special philological study stretching over a long series of years, and as long as there is no distinct Interpretation Department, the higher offices of which are as well paid as other higher offices in the Colonial Service, it will not be worth a superior man's while to go in for a tedious course of preparation for Interpreters' work, and the Colony will have to continue to be satisfied with second-rate Interpreters who, when attaining to ordinary proficiency, will find more lucrative and more congenial employment elsewhere.

27th July 1880.

E. J. EITEL.

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Enclosure A.

MINUTE

BY THE GOVERNOR,

as published in "Government Gazette" No. 49 of 29th November 1862, p. 333.

1. Under instructions from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State, His Excellency the Governor is pleased to direct that the following Rules respecting l'ensions to the Public Servants of this Colony be published for general information.

2. Subject to the exceptions and provisions hereinafter contained, all public servants holding offices named in the Civil List Ordinance, or offices described in the annual estimates as the fixed establishment of the Colony, and drawing salaries of thirty pounds a year and upwards, shall be entitled to pensions as follows:----

To any person who shall have served ten years and upwards and under eleven years, an annual allowance of fifteen-sixtieths of the annual salary of his office.

For eleven years and under twelve years, an annual allowance of sixteen-sixtieths of such salary.

And in like manner, a further addition to the annual allowance of one-sixtieth in respect of each additional year of such service until the completion of a period of service of thirty-five years, when the annual allowance of forty-sixtieths may be granted, and no addition shall be made in respect of any service beyond thirty-five years.

3. The Chief Justice, provided he shall not have served in any other office in the Colony, shall be entitled to a pension after seven years' service; at which time an allowance of three years' additional service shall be made to him; such pension to increase at the rate of two years' service for each addi- tional year he serves, until an allowance of ten years' additional service has been made to him; after which his pension shall increase at the same rate only as other officers, until he shall have reached twenty-five years' service, when he may receive the full allowance of forty-sixtieths of his annual salary, and no addition shall be made for any service beyond twenty-five years.

4. The Judge of the Summary Jurisdiction Court and the Colonial Chaplain, provided that pre- vious to their appointments in such capacities they shall not have served in other offices in the Colony, shall be entitled after ten years' and under eleven years' service to pensions at the rate of twenty- sixtieths of the annual Salaries of their respective Offices, increasing an additional sixtieth for every additional year's service, until the completion of thirty years' service, when the annual allowance of forty-sixtieths may be granted, and no addition shall be made in respect of any service beyond thirty years. In case of the elevation of any Judge of the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, who may be en- titled to the additional five years allowed by this clause, to the office of Chief Justice, the pension of such officer upon retirement may be calculated at the rate specified in this clause.

5. Any public servant of the Colony who may be elevated to the office of Governor of Hongkong shall, on his retirement from that office, be entitled to the same pension as if he had continued to hold the office which he vacated when he was appointed Governor, and (supposing him not to be fifty-five years of age) as if he had retired from ill-health. Provided that, if there shall be offered to any such ex-Governor, being under the age of fifty-five years, any public office or situation under the Crown, which, having reference as well to the state of his health as to the nature of his previous services, sucha

Dec.