CO129-411 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [5-7] — Page 320

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བྷསྶ ཨིསིམཧ, བྷཏྟཾ ཙ, སུསྨཱ སོ ཝཱ 1 – ཏཁཱཏཾ ཨཨུདྷ ཨིaL+{*t

1)

COPY.

Enclosure

2.

C.O.

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RECO

Report by the Committee appointed to investite theUL 14!

Interpretation Scheme.

The Committee, consisting of the Colonial Secretary, Registrar-General, Director of Education, and Treasurer, are unanimously agreed upon the following recommendations:-

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1. It is a matter of some difficulty to make a valid dis-

-tinction between an interpreter and a clerk. Certain officers,

such as those in the Courts, are well defined as interpreters'

offices, but in many cases clerical work occupies a large portion of an interpreter's time, with the result that the definition of what constitutes an interpreter's post must be to a certain extent

arbitrary.

2. Under the existing scheme a certain number of interpret-

-ers' and translators' posts are set aside in a sub-department,

and the officers who elect to qualify for these posts must look for advancement only in that sub-department. The Public Service has but few posts to offer to highly trained officers, whereas there is a comparatively large demand for men with the limited qualifications which suffice for such interpretation as is required by Sanitary Inspectors and in Police Stations; with the result that promotion is blocked, and men well qualified for interpreter's work prefer the clerical branch of the service.

3. The limitations of the sub-department form an inherent

defect in the present scheme, which cannot, it would seem, be remedied by any re-arrangement or re-classification of the posts except on most uneconomical lines. The remuneration of the sub- -ordinate service is, generally speaking, good, and in the cleric- -al branch a capable man has ample opportunity of promotion. In the upper grades of that branch a good knowledge of English is essential, and the distinction between interpreter and clerk tends to become one of function rather than of qualification.

4. It is accordingly recommended that the Interpretation Bub-department should be abolished and that interpreters should be

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