H.—l4.

8

A Stores Audit Section has been established in the Audit Department, and Inspectors have been appointed to various districts throughout the Dominion. This long-needed reform is now taking definite shape, and good results are looked for. Departmental instructions for the guidance of officers handling stores have been approved, under the provisions of the Public Service Act, for the majority of Departments. The regulations governing this aspect of stores administration are now duplicated under separate statutes. The Stores Control Board's organization provides for an Advisory Committee consisting of the Stores Managers of Railways, Post and Telegraph, and Public Works Departments. By regulation this Board is empowered to issue to Departments, and to require compliance therewith, any directions it may deem necessary in furtherance of its function and authority to control and direct the purchase, custody, use, distribution, and disposal of Government stores. This provision would appear sufficient to enable the Board to deal with the question of departmental instructions, and the necessary repeal of earlier regulations, to avoid duplication, is now being dealt with. Some difficulty has been experienced in obtaining suitable officers for stores work, but efforts are being made concurrent with the adoption of proper stores organization to train juniors with aptitude for the duties involved. The Service as a Training-ground. Circumstances have pointed to the fact that the Service is to some extent used as a training-ground by parents who desire their lads to follow careers outside the Service, while others avail themselves of the opportunity of obtaining employment in the larger centres to embark on a course of study afforded by the University colleges. These practices are more or less common to all large organizations where similar opportunities are offering, but there is another aspect for consideration. Whilst some officers do well after leaving the Service, others find the field not so green as it looked from within the Service, and of late there has been an increased tendency on. the part of the latter to seek to rejoin their original fellow-workers and attain a status somewhat akin to that they would have had had they remained in the Service. This principle, of course, cannot be considered, and it is desired to sound a note of warning that once an officer resigns from the Service to follow an avocation outside there is no undertaking whatever that he will be re-employed. The general practice followed is not to consider an officer for reappointment who has left for the purpose of bettering himself Departmental Officers on Loan to other Administrations. The following officers were, on the .31st March, 1923, on leave of absence from the New Zealand Public Service to enable them to take up duty with the Administrations named :—

Administration. Samoa Cook Islands M „ , Department from Name. r ,,.. , , which loaned. Stevens, 0. A. ; Halliday, II. L. ; Matthews, P. 0. Customs. Ritchie, Dr. T. R. . . .. .. .. Health. McKay, C. G. R. .. .. .. .. Internal Affairs, Crawford,,!.; Lofley, W. C. .. .. .. Public Works. Reid, E. A. .. .. .. .. .. Agriculture. McMahon-Box, J. P. .. . . . . .. Customs. Sleight, K. M. .. .. .. .. Internal Affairs. Morris, G.N... .. .. .. .. Justice. Luckman, A. A. .. .. .. .. Prisons. Granger, P. ; Wright, W. .. .. .. Agriculture. Steele, H. C. .. .. . . .. .. Audit. Jervis, D. M. ; Black, J, W. . . .. . . Internal Affairs. Sandford, F. T. .. . . . . . . Immigration. Carter, R. W.; Munro, 11. .. .. .. Agriculture. Marker, Miss D. A. .. .. .. . . Public Works. Chapman, J. H. . . . . .. . . Customs. High Commissioner's Office Falkland Islands Fijian Government Secretariat of League of \r.,: NTfl! inriK