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PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS
7. Agriculture and Forestry
Some differentiation between the initial salaries of the Administrative service and of the professional and technical services is considered to be necessary in order to attract to the latter candi- dates of the desired personality and educational attainment. Post- graduate training and experience is also demanded before selections for appointment are made. In the case of agricultural officers this period extends for two years. On the old scales the difference in the initial salaries is £80. A similar difference under the revised scheme would allocate an initial salary of £430 to the professional and technical scale. The nearest incremental point to this figure on the new stan- dard incremental scale is £425, which is accordingly suggested. From this point increments are so arranged as to bring the scale into accord with the Administrative scale in the fifth year.
The promotion bar is placed at £840 as against £720 under the existing arrangements. Bearing in mind the reduction in the pension constant and in the initial rate of salary an increase in the point at which the first promotion bar must be fixed is, as in the case of Admini- strative Officers, regarded as appropriate, and indeed as necessary, if the standard of recruitment is to be maintained.
It is proposed to apply the new professional and technical
scale as it stands to agricultural and forestry officers.
8.
VETERINARY
For purposes of remuneration veterinary officers may be compared on the one hand to Medical Officers, and on the other hand to Agricultural Officers, for science graduates have to undertake four years post graduate training in veterinary science before appointment to the Colonial Service, and the total period occupied by their training, therefore, approximates to the period required for the training of doctors. On the other hand a scholarship scheme has been instituted to assist candidates, who desire to obtain the necessary qualifications in veterinary science for admission to the Colonial Service, to bear the expense of the additional period of post- graduate study, and to that extent Veterinary Officers are more favourably situated than Medical Officers. Further, opportunities for employment outside the Colonial Service in the case of veterinarians are neither so frequent nor so financially attractive as those open to medical men. For these reasons it is considered that the remuneration applicable to veterinary officers can justifiably be placed on a somewhat lower scale than that appli- cable to Medical Officers.
On the other hand veterinary officers will enter the Service normally two years later than agricultural officers, and the senior posts to which they can look forward for promotion are in general fewer in number and less highly remunerated than those open to agricultural officers. It is reasonable in these circumstances that they should be granted an initial rate of salary in excess of that approved in ine case of agricultural officers.
Having regard to these considerations, an initial rate of £525 a year is suggested for veterinary officers. This rate as compared with the rate of £425 a year in the case of agricultural officers provides for two increments in respect of the additional period of preliminary training, and a further £50 in recognition of the other relevant factors.
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