CO129-418 - Public Offices & Others - 1914 — Page 109

C.A. 380.

The Appointment of a Junior Assistant Master to the Education Department of Hong Kong.

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1. The Secretary of State for the Colonies requires a Junior Assistant Master for the Education Department, Hong Kong.

2. Candidates should be trained certificated teachers qualified to teach general subjects, and should be prepared to help with the school games. Importance will also be attached to a knowledge of phonetics and to linguistic ability.

3. The engagement, in the first instance, will be for three years, and if at the end of that time his service has been satisfactory, the Junior Assistant Master will be placed, if mutually agreed, on the pensionable establishment of the Colony.

4. A salary at the rate of 300%. for each of the three years of the engagement will be paid to the Junior Assistant Master, and, subject to the permission of the Director of Education, he may undertake private tuition. Half salary will be paid from the date of embarkation from England and full salary from the date of arrival in the Colony. If the Junior Assistant Master be placed upon the pensionable establishment his salary would be at the rate of 3204. per annum, rising to 3604. per annum by increments of 201. triennially. Further promotion would be by merit and as vacancies occur.

The currency of Hong Kong is based on the silver dollar. For purposes of payments in the Colony salaries fixed in sterling are converted into dollars as regards 80 per cent. at the rate of 1s. 9d. to the dollar and as regards 20 per cent. at a rate fixed by the Government, and based upon the average exchange value of the dollar during the month ending on the 15th of the month for which salary is to be paid.

5. The candidate selected will be required to be examined by the Medical Adviser to the Colonial Office, and if the result is satisfactory he will be provided with a free second-class passage to the Colony. He will be required to sign an agreement to serve the Goverment of the Colony for three years from the date of his arrival there, and should he leave the service before the end of that period for any reason other than mental or physical infirmity, he would be liable to be called upon to repay the cost of his passage. A free passage home will be provided at the end of the three years' period if the engagement is terminated for reasons other than misconduct. A free passage home will also be provided before the expiration of three years if the Junior Assistant Master is incapacitated from further service by mental or physical disability.

6. Subject to the necessities of the service, leave of absence on half salary may be granted to members of the permanent Government Service after a period of four and a half years' resident service, without any special grounds. It may be given before the expiration of that period in cases of serious indisposition or of urgent private affairs. In the absence of special grounds, the leave in such case must not exceed one-sixth of the officer's resident service; on special grounds it may exceed that period by six months. The Governor will not in any case grant leave on half salary for a period of more than nine months at a time, but that period may be extended by the Secretary of State on the ground of ill-health or of urgent private affairs or for such other reasons as may appear to him to be sufficient. In exceptional cases extensions of leave without pay may be granted. At the request of any officer who may be eligible for the grant of any period of leave on half salary, the Governor may commute the whole or any portion of such leave into one-half the period of leave with full salary, provided that the total period of commuted and uncommuted leave, together with any period of vacation leave that may be granted, does not exceed ten months at a time. No officer can claim as a right to commute his leave in this manner, the decision whether commutation can or cannot be allowed being wholly within the discretion of the Governor. Officers attached to an educational institution enjoy when in the Colony the ordinary vacations of the institution to which they are attached. When taking long leave outside the Colony they may be allowed to draw

U (11)19139 G 1872 600 8/13 E & S