229
recognise the fact and stop playing tricks. Let us fix
the salaries in dollars so that a man may know for
certain how many of the standard coins of the country he is going to get and in order to settle the question of leave pay and pension let usefix leave pay and
pension in sterling What I suggest is this. A man's
pay on the present scale is fixed in sterling at £1,000.
Let us convert this into dollars at 2/- once for all
and say that his salary is to be $10,000. But let us at the same time say that for leave and pension purposes his salary is £1,0
,000. This is really about the same thing as the suggestion of the Commission that salaries
S
8
should be paid at 2/- to the dollar but it is simpler
and more logical and will I hope, put an end to
exchange questions. it is of course possible that if
the dollar again goes down to 1/6d there will be
complaints because a man who has to remit money to
England will have to pay more dollars for his
sovereign but, personally, I should ignore this point
in future. If, however, any concession is made it
could easily be done by allowing a man to have a
certain fixed proportion of his salary paid in England
on the basis of his sterling leave salary,
The above remarks cover 8 1-6 of the report.
As regards § 7 I do not particularly object to the
proposal to have four classes in the Civil Service if
it is considered desirable to continue the present system of classification but after a good many years
experience of classifications I am strongly of opinion that more elasticity is desirable, I should greatly
prefer a system by which a man could be paid a higher salary without its being necessary to transfer him
from the post where he is most useful. (The relative
importance
3,500
,000
5000-250-£7,500
2,000.
importance of posts is constantly varying and it is impossible really to fix them into classes of any
permanence. We have found this very much the case in Ceylon). I should therefore very much prefer the classification to be purely one of status. Cadets. Class II. Class1. and let appointments be held by the
man most suitable to hold them, I would suggest for the Civil Service the following scale:-
Cadet. £350,
Passed Cadet, £400, but let him enter Class II as soon as he has completed 3 years' service, if he has passed
his examinations.
-
Class II. £500
annually to £1,000,
1,500-500-$15,000 Class I, £1,050
ter a year sta 10,000.
25 annually to £750 and thence by £50
►
50 annually to £1,500.
Thus everybody is certain to get to £1,000 if he does
well enough to earn his increments and this is right.
However mediocre a man may be he ought to get to this as
it is the least a married man with a family to be
educated can do with at the end of his service. At the
top of Class II he should stop unless he gets a
certificate of real fitness for promotion (This is to prevent a man's being given high pay because he is a
good sort while being kept in inferior jobs). If the certificate is forthcoming he should go on to $10,500
and so on to $15,000.
+
This system will prevent stagnation and
inequalities of promotion. It is true that it will
prevent men getting to Class 1 at an early age owing to other peoples deaths or retirements but I don't think
this is an objection. If however, it is thought necessary to encourage the service to hope for such windfalls it can be done by saying that Class I shall be kept up to its number of 6 by special promotions if its
numbers fall below siz
8 9.
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