H.—33

Session 11. 1918. NEW ZEALAND.

HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR NEW ZEALAND (ANNUAL REPORT OF THE) FOR THE YEAR 1916.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Sir, — High Commissioner's Office, London W.C., 10th August, 1917. I have the honour to transmit herewith a report upon the work carried out by my Department during the year 1916. I regret that the great pressure of work upon the staff, and particularly the responsible officers, has rendered it impossible to deal with this matter before, or even now to carry it out in such a manner as to do full justice to the Department. The constant succession and ever-increasing volume of important duties entrusted to the Department by all branches of the Dominion Government Service and others is rendered increasingly difficult to cope with in view of the demands of the military upon the services of the permanent and temporary staff, resulting in dislocation and constant rearrangement with new and untried officers. I am quite confident that no single Department of the Imperial or' Colonial Civil Service is confronted with or expected to carry out such a variety of important subjects as this Department, and I can speak feelingly of the great strain thrown upon this Office. In these circumstances I feel sure that, apart from the physical difficulty of collating a report upon similar lines and to the same extent as in previous years, it will be recognized that the time of the officers is so fully occupied as to render it undesirable to attempt to supply full detailed returns of all the work, but to refer briefly to them in a general way so as to give a succinct account of the matters dealt with. To facilitate, therefore, the preparation of the report each branch of the Department has furnished a brief statement upon the work entrusted to it, entering only into details whenever it is requisite to make a comparison or to emphasize a point. It should be borne in mind that whereas some of the regular work of the Department has naturally suffered in volume owing to the war, the actual work involved has actually in some of these cases been greater owing to the special and novel conditions prevailing, whilst the war subjects themselves have greatly expanded the number and volume of special matters dealt with, increasing the work of the Department to a remarkable degree. Fortunately, matters have been greatly facilitated by the removal to our present offices, which are light, commodious, and well fitted. As I have fully gone into the matter of these offices in my letter of the 4th May, 1917 (No. 3979), and previous correspondence, it will be unnecessary to enter into further details herein beyond stating that every effort is made to run them economically and at the same time make them attractive, so as to provide a permanent exhibition and advertisement of the resources of the Dominion. This report covers the following branches of the Department with their various sections, and are dealt with herein under these headings : — (1.) General Branch, covering Secretarial, Diplomatic, Cables, Records, and General Sections. (2.) Accounts Branch, covering Finance, Insurance, Intestate Estate, Pensions and Remittances, Allotments, Transport., and Indents Sections. (3.) Produce Branch, covering all produce (except meat and dairy-produce), also some special war matters and exhibitions. (4.) Indents and Shipping Branch, covering also trade priority certificates. (5.) Immigration and Advertising Branch.

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