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A particularly vexatious anomaly is that the limit of automatic progress for clerks is much higher in some of the State Services than in others. In the Public Service it is £447, in the National Airways Corporation £485, and in the Bank of New Zealand £5BO, while in the Reserve Bank it is even higher, these maxima having been set by different authorities. One remedy would be to co-ordinate the various authorities now operating ; another, perhaps better, would be to have a single authority (linked with the Arbitration Court) to determine salary and wage scales for all Government Services, including public corporations of all kinds. CONDITION AND EFFICIENCY OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE Section 15 of the Public Service Act, 1912, requires the Commission to report annually on the condition and efficiency of the Service. It is unlikely that it will ever be able to report that these are in every way satisfactory, and it is freely admitted in our introductory paragraph and other sections of this report that we cannot say so for the year under review. With continuing conditions of full or " over-full " employment, the turnover of staff is still abnormal. As a consequence, work is often done by inadequately trained or qualified people, and the standard of work falls. Similarly, the recruitment of juniors is much below requirements, with a resultant effect on the allocation of work. The Commission is endeavouring to lessen the effect of adverse conditions on the efficiency of the Service by the active recruitment of juniors, as referred to above, the recognition of ability and initiative, the training of staff, and encouraging an interest in improvements in organization and methods of work. SPECIAL INCREMENTS FOR MERIT The most practical method of recognizing special merit and ability is by special salary increments. Rises are normally granted annually, but the Commission encourages Departments to pick out their best juniors and recommend accelerated promotion. During the war years little was done owing to the difficulty of doing justice to the large number of officers absent from Departments. To-day there is no reason why those who show special ability and efficiency should not be brought to notice early—the executives of the future will be found this way. Permanent Heads are taking full advantage of this policy in their recommendations for the current year. STAFF TRAINING, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Staff Training With ever-changing staffs, plus the continued losses of younger male officers and the difficulty in recruiting sufficient young people of good calibre to replace them, the need for staff training is more important than ever. We must train to get the best from what we have. In Departments, off-the-job training programmes have been more closely related to current work. As a result of central training, teaching techniques have improved, and the short-course method has been more widely used. A few Departments have made good use of the T.W.I. (Training within Industry) programme to give supervisors an organized method for on-the-job training. The controlling officers' courses referred to in our last report have been continued. Courses for cadets were held in the four main centres to cater for those who entered the Service during the year, while two central courses were held for officers in the Class IV - Class V range recently appointed to supervising duties.

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