CO129-547-10 Memorandum on revision of salaries 1-1-1934 - 31-12-1936 — Page 28

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In that case it ought to be possible to affect economies

at the other end of the scale. It must be remembered that

only Magistrates and Crown Counsel are involved, the total

number of whom is small, and that therefore the proportion

of senior to junior posts in the legal and judicial

departments is high as compared with other departments.

Legal officers may thus in the ordinary course of events

look forward to a considerably shorter period of service

in a junior capacity before receiving promotion. In these

circumstances the attractions of a comparatively high

maximum for the junior posts are not so great, nor is the

need for a long scale so apparent, in the legal as in other

spheres, and if the minimum salary of the scale is fixed

at £700 or £720 it would seem justifiable, as a partial

offset to the initial expenuiture involved, to retain the

existing maximum of £920.

It must, however, be admitted that the

experience available at the present time is insufficient to

enable more than a tentative judgment to be made regarding

the minimum terms which must be offered in order to obtain

recruits for legal appointments who possess the qualifications

desired; and it must also be recognised that an initial

salary of £700 or 9720 is high by comparison with the

general scale of remuneration offered on first appointment

to the Government Service in East Africa as a whole,

partic larly when account is taken of the fall in the

cost of living which has resulted from the recent economic

changes.

For these reasons, having regard also to the

urgent necessity for maintaining the maximum degree of

economy in public expenditure, it may be consiuered on the

whole preferable to adopt, for immediate purposes, the lower

minimum of 3600, leaving the question of a higher minimum

to be considered at a later date, if necessary, in the

light of actual experience. If this alternative is

accepted, however, it would be desirable to fix the maxim

of the scale at £1,0J), as in the case of Administrative

and