His thesis need not be endorsed by this journal in every point of detail but in its general approach to the subject it is deserVing of serious! study. It serves too as a compact summing up of the question and may usefully be examined in that} light, In particular the suggestion that the Council should consider the possibility of regrading its appointments in order to effect economies in the grant of passages, exchange compensation and leave goes a long way to meet the contentions of some critics, As this journal already pointed out the existing scales of salaries were framed recently as 1929 when a specially appointed Commission made in-Jauiry and recommendations thereon, 'That Commission was composed leading business men who could be trusted not to neglect the public interest, coinciding as it did with their own. In other words they' would not be likely to support ex~ travagance in staffing the Municipal offices because it would have a direct effect on their own businesses, it being well understood that the Council's conditions of service would in some respects govern engagements with private firms. Circumstances, admittedly,—are to-day changed and it is conceive able that a Commission now sitting] might not be quite so expansive in but it would ite the basic principles on which its predecessor confirmed the Council's staffing] policy. For example, it would probably demur to any proposals; which could be regarded as inimical to the maintenance of a contented, independent, efficient and upright civil service. Bitter experience elsewhere shows that where those conditions do not exist, the resultant cost to the public is i calculable great. The ability of the Council's officers in effecting! economies during the present period of depression rests in no small measure on the general excellence of the service at their command, While supporting the suggestion of regrading, this journal feels that, the essential requirements of a public or civil service should be again emphasized. It is axiomatic' that the security defined for that: service is more rigid than that offered in commercial pursuits. Much. is made of the salary "cuts" effected by the British Government in 1931, but now restored, With out entering into discussion of the difference between the acute finan-_ odal and economic crisis of that year in Great Britain and the present depression which has not yet forced the Council to raise the taxation to the normal rate prevailing before 1930, it may be pertinent to) note that those "'cuts"—dictated less by financial than by political considerations—are now held by many people to have been unwise and to have had'on the service an adverse effect. It outweighed the temporary relief obtained and_is only now being rectified by the gradual restoration of public confi dence, to which the conviction that the precedent will not be followed has made important contribution. If'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.