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a remuneration for an officer who might be performing only routine clerical duties, and pointed out that the existing class should be subdivided, new subdivisions being formed with the following maxima : £320, £270, £215, and £.160. A recommendation in this direction was made to Government, and in April last His Excellency the Governor-General, by Order in Council, revoked the existing scale of salaries for officers in Class VII, and substituted the following: — £ £ £ £ £ £ VII (a) .. .. 255 275 295 305 (b) .. . . 215 235 (c) . . . . 185 200 (d) .. ..75 90 105 130 150 170 Provision was made that under no circumstances should an officer be advanced beyond any subdivision of Class VII (d), and beyond the maxima of Classes VII (c) and VII (b), until he had given satisfactory proof to the Commissioner of his efficiency. The range of salaries was identical with that previously gazetted, with the exception that new steps at £170 and £185 were inserted, thus abolishing the automatic increase of £50, from £150 to £200, which was previously provided, and which in the case of junior officers is considered excessive. The representatives of the Public Service Association, have been advised that for the current year the Commissioner will raise no objection on technical grounds to any Clerical Division officer who was on a salary of £150, and who is dissatisfied with the increment which has been granted him, placing his case before the Public Service Board of Appeal. Appointments to the Service. The difficulty referred to in last year's report, of securing cadets for appointment to the Public Service, no longer obtains. It was therefore unnecessary to continue the special educational classes, and the Public Service College which, was established'in January, 1921, was accordingly closed at the end of June of this year. The following quotation from a report of the New South Wales Public Service Board in regard to recruiting the Service also applies to the New Zealand Public Service:— " There is no disputing the fact, too, that owing to ignorant and ill-considered public criticism of the Government Service it' has come to be regarded in many quarters that the Public Service does not offer a sufficiently attractive career to a youth of brains and. energy —that it is a place where brains and energy are not required and are not paid for, and, in fact, is the home--par excellence- - of incompetence and mediocrity. The Board strongly resent such an imputation, for they claim that the Service is an efficient one, that it is becoming more efficient year by year, and that in ii) capacity, industry, initiative, and character are the prime factors taken into consideration by the Board in selecting officers for promotion or for appointment to important positions. Furthermore, the Service, taken as a whole, is adequately remunerated. It is, of course, to be remembered that the number of positions in each Department of the Service demanding high professional and administrative qualifications is limited, and the Board, while agreeing that such positions, and those demanding initiative, business acumen, and rare powers of control, should be liberally valued, are not prepared to sanction the payment of inflated salaries for essentially routine work, even though it may be carried out by men classed in the Professional Division." Period of Probation. The practice adopted last year of extending the period of probation to a period of not less than two years has proved of advantage. The need for reducing expenditure also has impressed Permanent Heads arid controlling officers with the necessity of making a more rigid examination of the qualifications of probationers before recommending that their appointments be confirmed, with the result that there has been an increase in the number of annulments during the first period. The magnitude and multiplicity of the business operations of the various Departments of the Public Service, and the perfect service which the public expect and to which they are entitled, require that not only the greatest care be exercised in the selection of officers, but that their tenure of office shall depend entirely upon efficient and. "meritorous service. As was stated, by the Public Service Commission in 1912, it is better for the State and better for the individual that an officer's unsuitability for the Service should be discovered in the early stages of his career. Many young fellows start in a line that is not suited to them. If they remain in it