Sessional_Paper_1932 — Page 82

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Paragraph 14. agents, or owners. Commission.

No overtime is worked except on special request from dockyards, The amount of fee payable to the officer was fixed by the Salaries

Paragraph 16.-The Harbour Department is primarily a department to control and regulate vessels and shipping in the harbour, and only secondarily a revenue producing It would in Government's opinion be most unwise to reverse this order.

one.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE.

It is proposed to effect an economy not mentioned by the Commissioners by re- placing the Assistant Attorney General by a Cadet Officer with legal training in 1932.

REGISTRY, SUPREME COURT; CROWN SOLICITOR; LAND OFFICE;

OFFICIAL RECEIVER.

Paragraph 2.-The recommendation regarding the Deputy Registrars has been adopted and the necessary amending ordinance to the Supreme Court Ordinance, sub- stituting the words "one or more" for "two" Deputy Registrars passed its third reading on the 3rd September last. There are no vacant Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff posts. One is filled by the Accountant, one by the clerk to the Chief Justice, and the stenographer has been replaced by a Confidential Assistant and Stenographer.

Paragraph 5.-The Commissioners do not appear to have taken into account the important work done by the Official Receiver as Registrar of Trade Marks. The revenue from this is in the neighbourhood of $11,000 per annum, and is expected to be almost doubled with the recently increased fees. Fees in respect of bankruptcy proceedings reached the then highest total of $7,837 in 1926, a year of many business failures. For the first three months only of this year the figure was $8,892. These figures are mentioned not as an excuse for retaining the post of Official Receiver on the grounds that it is a means of obtaining more revenue, but to show that unless there is the substantive post, bankruptcy work is bound to be neglected to the inconvenience of the community. It is properly work for which a Government is expected to provide. The position will however be reviewed on the retirement of the present holder.

MAGISTRACIES.

Government concurs in this recommendation.

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

Paragraph 2.-A vacancy has recently occurred in the Bacteriological Office by the transfer to British Guiana of Dr. Minett. The Director of Medical and Sanitary Services has been instructed to endeavour to obtain a Chinese for the post of Assistant and it is hoped that he will be successful. It will not be easy to find a trained Chinese analyst, but the co-operation of the University is being sought. It is obvious however that the requirements of Government alone for trained analysts are not large enough to make it worth the while of the University to institute any special course of training.

The gradual replacement of European by Chinese Nursing Sisters has been and will continue to be Government's policy. In the printed draft Estimates for 1932 it will be seen that the establishment of European Nurses has been reduced by four.

Paragraph 3.-The Government while in sympathy with the idea underlying this paragraph is not aware of any practical scheme of economy which can be evolved there- from.

Paragraphs 5 and 6.--It is not the intention of Government to obtain specialists. The three University professors in medicine, surgery, and obstetrics and gynaecology, are now definitely attached to the Medical Department as Government Consultants. This regularisation of their position will enable the Medical Officer-in-Charge of Govern- ment Civil Hospital to draw their attention to any apparent extravagance in the order- ing of 'extras" in exactly the same way as he does in the case of other Medical Officers under him.