Sessional_Paper_1948 — Page 26

20

cost of living and have given these representations most careful consideration. We find ourselves, however, unable to recommend any proposal for a permanent system of family allowances such as has been in force for some years in Malaya. We consider that under normal circumstances a public service cannot differen- tiate between the rates of remuneration of its servants according to their family status. Every salary scale must visualise and make some provision for officers marrying and raising families and in framing our recommendations we have assumed that during the course of their careers officers will marry and raise families.

66. One incidental difficulty ought to be mentioned. In a Chinese family many who would be excluded by any British definition of the term freely share the family resources. Hence even in a period of relatively high unemployment it is possible to maintain wage rates at what an observer would think to be a completely uneconomic level: the unemployed share fully in the emoluments of the employed members of the family group. In Hong Kong, in a wage earning economy this characteristic of a rural community though weakening is still dominant. We are of the opinion that the Government must in its services accept the pattern of a modern industrial economy. Our proposals, following the example set in recent income tax legislation, are adjusted to the narrower conception of the family.

67. We are of the opinion that assistance to Government servants with children should be part of a general social service scheme designed to benefit the community as a whole and not merely that small section of the community which is employed by Government itself. We were impressed by representa- tions from members of the Junior Clerical Service and others regarding the heavy cost of education. We cannot, of course, recommend special privileges for the children of Government servants in this connexion, but, although such a recommendation is not strictly within our terms of reference, we suggest that Government should consider the provision of free primary education for the children of all permanent Hong Kong residents and of generous assistance towards the secondary education of such children.

68. While we are unable to recommend any family or children's allowance as part of the permanent emoluments of public officers, we have attempted to meet the immediate problems of officers with children by suggesting a differentiation in the rates of temporary high cost of living allowance. Our proposals are set out in greater detail in Chapter X, but may be summarised as prescribing 100% of the rates suggested for married officers with children, 80% for married officers and 60% for unmarried officers.

SPECIALIST ALLOWANCES

69. It is in the public interest that, with proper safeguards, the specialist knowledge of certain members of the Medical Department should be at the call of private practitioners: it seems reasonable to us that Government has a claim to fees earned for their work. The present arrangement by which the fees are shared between the Government and the specialist seems to us to be open to abuse by any man who wishes materially to supplement his income. Nevertheless such consultative work appears to us to be outside the functions for which the specialist was appointed and that he reasonably might ask that he should receive some remuneration for the exercise of his skill. To obviate the possibility of abuse, and to give a man some reward for extra- contractual work we would propose that the Government should consider the alternative of paying a bonus or honorarium based on the limited amount of private consultative work that a specialist should be permitted to do, and that all the fees for such work should be collected by the office of the hospital to which he is attached and paid into the Treasury.

FEES FOR EVENING INSTITUTE TEACHING

70. The Estimates show a fairly large provision for fees for superin- tendence and teaching of evening classes controlled by the Education Department. A large part of this expenditure is made to men who are nōt members of the Department and on this we make no comment. But we suggest that Government should inquire into the possibility of giving compensa- tion for evening work done by members of the Department in the way of adjustment of hours between day and evening work and also into the economy that possibly might be achieved by employing a separate staff for evening teaching as this part of the Department's work develops.