H.—l4

10

their status and are now recorded in conjunction with earlier successes, if any, as having passed as follows : Passed the whole examination, 160, of whom 3 passed with distinction ; passed in five or more subjects, 30 ; passed, in four, 82 ; passed in three, 84 ; passed in two, 99. 64. The Public Service Entrance Examination was conducted at fifty-four centres between the 23rd November and Ist December, 1915, under regulations which came into force on the Ist April, 1914. The number of candidates entered was 1,232, as compared with 1,044 for the previous year. Of the total, 1,138 were present at the examination, and 666 passed. Only those boys were admitted to the Entrance Examination who expressed their intention of entering the Public Service. 65. Both the Senior and the Entrance Examinations were conducted by the Education. Department by arrangement. The cost was as follows : Public Service Senior, £912 ; Public Service Entrance, £812. 66. Post and Telegraph Efficiency Examinations. —The number of officers who sat for the efficiency examinations during the year 1915-16 was 779. Of this number 551 (71 per cent.) were successful either wholly or partially. Details are as follows :— Passed (wholly MefL or partially). Cadets, Telegraph .. .. .. 64 '. . Cadets, Technical . . .. .. 56 74 Cadets, Postal .. .. .. ..203 115 Cadets, Sorting-test . . . . 11 4 First (Postal General) .. .. 71 76 First (Telegraph General) .. . . 53 Junior Despatch Clerks . . .. 2 Junior Counter Clerks .. . . .. 1 Despatch and Counter Clerks' First . . .. 11 Oral test .. . . .. . . 68 Telephone-exchange Clerks' First . . .. 4 Telephone-exchange Clerks' Technical . . 2 3 Senior Technical .. .. .. . . 5 6 CO-OPERATION OF DEPARTMENTS IN COMPILATION OF NATIONAL REGISTER. 67. For the collection of the schedules under the National Registration Act, 1915, the machinery of the Post and Telegraph Department was used with the greatest success and economy. To facilitate the registration a house-to-house delivery was made by the letter-carriers in all towns, while even in the country districts the local Postmasters were careful to see that every eligible male in. their district received, a schedule. 68. Considering the number of men who had been sent out of the country and those who were actually in camp or exempt, the fact that no fewer than 303,000 schedules were obtained during the registration period of a fortnight is a splendid testimony to the real personal interest and zeal exercised by the letter-carriers and local Postmasters in the collection and to the thoroughness with which the work was attended to. A proper house-to-house collection throughout the Dominion on the lines of an ordinary census could have given very little better results, and would have taken very much longer to complete. Moreover, for an ordinary census the cost of collection alone is £20,000, while the payment to the Postal Department for the collection work in connection with the National Register was approximately £400. 69. In the work of tabulation, too, the assistance rendered by the Postal Department was very great, the necessary staff, with the exception of a few (seven) available from the Census and Statistics Office, and accommodation having been provided by that Department in Wellington. The great mobility of the assistance thus given allowed the work involved being attacked by the greatest possible number at the most critical time, as many as 140 officers being engaged, during the evenings at one stage of the work. It was only this mobility of supply of clerical assistance