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Sufficient young people are entering the Service to give us a fair opportunity to judge the results of the national education system. Our experience is satisfactory and -encouraging. No doubt some allowance is to be made for the fact that a career in the Public Service is apt to attract and retain the more responsible type who weigh longerterm considerations when choosing their career. Yet, allowing for this, no one can help being impressed by the quality and the maturity of school-leavers entering Government Departments. With their good quality and inadequate numbers, young persons who •enter the Public Service have excellent prospects of advancement. Staffing : Shorthand-typists, Typists, and Machinists Transfers of officers from other districts in a relieving capacity are still being encouraged to meet the difficult staffing position in Wellington. Full use has been made of accommodation available at Government hostels. Some of the larger Departments are relying on such assistance to keep the typing work under control. Despite the long-standing shortage of typing staff, the Commission has not relaxed its requirement for the attainment of definite standards, and promotion is based on the passing of certain examinations. This has increased the difficulty of recruiting qualified juniors, as attractive offers are accepted before the Public Service standard has been reached. This is particularly so in Wellington, and to meet this situation the Commission's shorthand and typewriting school was opened last year. This operates in two classes, with at present twenty-five students in each. There is also a waiting-list. Tuition at the school ceases when the Public Service Junior Shorthand and Typewriting Examination has been passed or if satisfactory progress is not being made. Students undertake to remain in the Service for up to two years after qualifying at the school. Staffing difficulties are also affecting the operation of punched-card machines. Installations are centralized in Wellington, and the expanding use of this type of machinery, combined with the difficulty of recruiting suitable labour for the operation of plants, is causing the Commission considerable concern. Yarious methods of meeting the situation are being considered in consultation with Departments affected. Staffing : Professional Officers The Service is seriously undermanned in most professional groups such as doctors, dentists, engineers, architects, and surveyors. " Scarcity value " makes the problem of recruiting and retaining professional officers one of the utmost difficulty. Endeavours to recruit them from overseas have met with but limited success, in spite of offers to pay fares and other expenses incidental to taking up appointment. It is particularly difficult to recruit medical officers to staff hospitals operated by the Health Department and to fill vacant positions as Medical Officers of Health in the districts. Nor are dentists any more readily obtainable to fill positions in the Dental Division with its greatly expanded service to the children of New Zealand. Undoubtedly the salaries paid, up to the present, have not been sufficient to attract enough suitably qualified men. While salaries for senior professional posts in the Health Department have not, until recently at least, been high enough, the root cause is the exceptional earnings by men of the two professions in outside practice. Earnings under the social security scheme have made nearly impossible the adequate staffing of Government Departments. Still further complicating the issue from the Commission's point of view is the independent fixation of salaries for medical officers employed by Hospital Boards under the Hospital Employment Regulations. These regulations have provided salaries, paid from public funds, in excess of salaries paid to medical officers in institutions under the control of the Health Department.

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