21

H.—34

Appointments. Taking the entrance to the Service first: the permanent appointments to the Service are at present ruled by Part I of the Civil Service Act, 1908, by the Civil Service Amendment Act, 1908, and also by section 5 of the Public Service Classification and Superannuation Amendment Act, 1911. In order to make the matter quite clear we quote these, as follows : — Extract from Civil Service Act, 1908. Part I. —Appointments. 4. (1.) Every person appointed to the Civil Service of New Zealand shall only enter such Service as a cadet after competitive examination as provided in section six hereof, and after being proved to be physically fit for the Service. (2.) The Controller and Auditor-General shall not pass any voucher for the payment of salary to any person to be appointed as aforesaid who is not appointed in the manner provided by this section and by section six hereof. (3.) This section does not apply to — (a.) .... (b.) Persons who were employed as extra clerks in the Public Service on the seventeenth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six (being the date of the coming into operation of the Civil Service Reform Act, 1886); or (c.) Persons appointed under the Defence Act, 1908, or the Police Force Act, 1908; or (d.) Officers of prisons, or warders of lunatic asylums; or (c.) Persons appointed as messengers; or (/.) Persons seeking re-employment in the Civil Service after having held permanent offices therein and left the same either voluntarily or otherwise through no fault of their own; or (g.) Persons who by reason of five years' service are deemed to be officers permanently appointed pursuant to the Public Service Classification and Superannuation Act, 1908. (1.) .... 5. (1.) No person shall be appointed permanently as a messenger unless he has passed an examination equivalent to that of the Fourth Standard of education provided under the Education Act, 1908 : Provided that in the case of persons who have been formerly employed in the service of New Zealand, or of His Majesty elsewhere, or who have been injured or disabled in New Zealand, such an examination need not be insisted on. (2.) No person shall be appointed permanently under the Defence Act, 1908, or the Police Force Act, 1908, or as an officer of prisons, unless he has passed a like examination. 6. (1.) Except as provided by this Act, all appointments to the Civil Service shall be by competitive examination, which shall be held periodically in the chief centres of population, and from the most successful competitors in the order of their merit shall be selected candidates to fill all vacant cadetships in the Civil Service. (2.) The competitive examinations aforesaid shall include such subjects as the Governor in Council fiom time to time appoints, and where any two or more candidates stand in equal order of merit, and there are not sufficient vacancies for all of them to receive appointments, the selection of the candidates to be appointed shall be determined by lot, to be conducted under the direction of the Minister of Internal Affairs. 7. (1.) Every Civil servant appointed on or after the seventeenth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six (being the date of the coming into operation of the Civil Service Reform Act, 1886), shall be deemed a three-monthly servant, and removable at any time after three months' notice. (2.) This section does not apply to warders of lunatic asylums or prison officers, who shall be deemed to be monthly servants and shall not be required to undergo any competitive examination prescribed under this Act; but in other respects this Act shall apply to such warders and officers. 8. The appointment of a bailiff of a Magistrate's Court or constable to the office of Clerk to a Magistrate's Court, to exercise the duties of such Clerk in addition to his other duties, shall not be deemed to be an appointment to the Civil Service within the meaning of this Act. 9. (1.) No cadet appointed on or after the date last aforesaid shall receive more than two hundred pounds per annum unless he has passed such examination as is prescribed by regulations to be made under this Act by the Governor in Council. (2.) Such examination may be different for different Departments of the Public Service, and in the case oiCeach Department the subjects of examination may have reference to the special work of the Department. (3.) No cadet appointed on or after the thirteenth day of October, one thousand nine hundred (being the date of the coming into operation of the Civil Service Examination Act, 1900), shall receive more than two hundred pounds per annum until he has passed the Senior Civil. Service Examination, or until he has served in the Civil Service for a period of five years, and has passed the examination referred to in subsection one hereof. (1.) An examination, as to the whole thereof or any one or more subjects thereof, conducted by any university or other examining body may, if the regulations so authorize, be accepted in lieu of the examination under this section.