3.
20
grounds, such as convalescence after illness.
Recently,
however, more particularly since their re-issue as part
of the new set of leave rules, applications have become
more numerous, and the Government is faced with the
alternatives of refusing to grant the full period, or of increasing, perhaps by as much as one eighth, its clerical
establishment. With regard to the first alternative,
the grant of leave is of course subject to the exigencies of the service, but, in the first place, discrimination is
not easy, and, in the second, I am reluctant to refuse
privileges definitely laid down in General Orders.
I am
equally reluctant to advocate an increase in establishment
which, in the case of the Junior Clerical Establishment
alone, might involve an additional expenditure in excess of $100,000 per annum.
5.
The only course open would appear to be the curtailment of the leave privileges set out in the General Orders quoted, and I feel that this could be accomplished without the infliction of undue hardship. General Order 174 provides for the grant of 12 days casual leave during the year, in the calculation of which intervening Sundays and public holidays are not included. General Order 173 provides for the grant of half pay leave in exceptional
I do not propose to make any alteration
circumstances.
in the case of these classes of leave. General Order 172
on the other hand provides for the grant of four to six weeks full pay leave per annum, which may be accumulated for two years. This taken in conjunction with the provi- sion for casual leave appears to me to be unduly generous,
and
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