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1924. NEW ZEALAND.

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONER (TWELFTH REPORT OF THE).

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

To His Excellency the Eight Honourable John Eushworth, Viscount Jellicoe, Admiral of the Fleet, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty's Dominion of New Zealand and its Dependencies. May it please Your Excellency,--As Commissioner appointed under the Public Service Act, 1912, I have the honour to submit the following report, as required by section 15 of the Act. REPORT. One of the most important matters that have engaged attention during the period under review has been the regrading of the Service. Section 17 of the Public Service Act as amended by section 160 of the Education Act, 1914, provides for the following :— (a.) The grading of officers in five principal divisions—namely, Administrative, Professional, Clerical, General, and Educational : (b.) That such grading shall be according to fitness, and to the character and importance of the work performed by each officer. (r:.) That officers shall be regraded at intervals of not more than five years. As a systematic grading —or, rather, regrading—of the Service is the basic structure upon which the whole principle of classification is founded, and is indeed one of the fundamentals in Commissioner control, and, further, in view of the fact that the task of regrading the Service has just been completed, it will not be out of place to outline, as briefly as possible, the principal factors that underlie the system. It is not proposed to deal with the need and purpose of the classification system further than to state briefly that the primary objects are to eliminate

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