The proposed classi Municipal. staff and tion of the the grading. scale and scales of pay are conin pages 317-286) tions made by Mr. A, C. Clear for the re-organization of the Covsei stof.
At the outset, the Council requested that immediate attention be given to the necessity of making provision for the temporary relief of the lower grades of the recommends that no change inclusion of the Secretary" with that of General" be made dating his tenure of the office.
"To reflect this change properly in the organization of the Council's service the Commission also recom. mends that the. Director-General's fice should absorb in its entirety the Secretariat and that the higher administrative staff consist in fo-tare of:
{ne recor Gon Secretary Gre tar Fee Ase that Secretaries (one for instead of consisting, ax at the present time, of One Director-General One Secretary Two Deputy Secretaries Other recommendations, in brief, mae by the Commission in respect of the general outline of work as Adopted are as follow: municipal under the Municipal staff in view of their) your distress. Consequently, after 0 Tee appetatment in June, 4) Thotteon of the temporary. relict measures were] Cranted. "to lower paid married. "fresnurer and Controle Employment of eficlont, busi members of the foreign star practically th whole of the Chinese staff similarly placed. The Commission then went into recess for a thorough examination Municipal persond, foreign and Chinese, and the benefits and privileges accorded them in connec: tion with their duti As a direct of this the Publi The of a chief! fu the Public' payment of local foreign ramon, pal star Jexamination, the Commission has} approved the recommendations of! the Economy Committee that the foreign staff be gradually reduced and replaced due course by! Chine and locally engaged workers.
Mr. A. C, Clear was specially. asked by the Commission to submit} suggestions regarding this phase of the examination.
In February, this yes remembered, the Com jon approved a petition fw: increased pay'
ibmitted by the foreign Municipal staff, on condition that the temporary character of relief which would follow its approval should be emphasized, pending the final decision of the Council on its recommendations. The Commission simultaneously took exception to} the ruling, then in force, that such relief would be paid in addition to the benefits offending the fixing of rate of Tls. 9 to the Pound)
In addition to its other _recommendations, the Commission has. decided that payment of all Muni-should be made upon for the following rea mallee unt logs greater tices of future economy.
a aealen it woe ater such a change berbrourhe dboxe tua 3 ity is now presented ina ind' compilation seales of pay for all depart:
Regarding the age limit of prospective Municipal employees, the Commission is of the opinion that! the present limit of 40 years except! for special appointments is too high. Tt recommends that the maxinium starting age for all employees be reduced to 85, thus giving an oppor tunity for minimum pension at the age of 65.
"an important recommendation Sterling on the first Tls. 500 of with 0.of with rey living expenses has been appended regard to present and future of|that consideration be given to the! by the Commission in these words: increase in water rates proposed by the Shanghai Waterworks Ca.
The writers draw attention to the fact that the financial burden:
the residents of the International Settlement has already, beech increased considerably as a result of the company's action in increasing the water rates from ten to 12 per cent. and they say that the new proposed increase is tantamount toa threat to refuse to supply water to the people if they not fall in line with their (the company's) demands.
The revenues of the Waterworks Ca. have been greatly. increased, indirectly, in recent years, through the increase of _house rents, the, writers continue, and the burden of the people will' become! heavier if the new rates are en: forced because they will tend to encourage landlords to increase their rents, Therefore, they: conclude, it is! quite unreasonable for the company to increase its rates under the pretext of the silver slump. "The company's annual revenues and [profits are so huge that, instead of increasing the rates to meet the) deficiency, a reduction would be sufficient to enable it to avoid] financial difficulties and to meet ang deficiency.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.