The salaries vary immensely, those paid to the natives being often astonishingly small, according to our ideas, sometimes being as low as $43 a year. Length of service is taken into account in promotion. HONGKONG. At Hongkong the system is much the same as in British India. 1. As a rule, the hours of work are from 10 a. m to 4 p. m., without interval. 3 and 4. Two months are allowed every year, and one month for sick leave on medical certificate. 5. Monthly. 6 and 7. After 55 years, or sooner if invalided, but only if he has served ten years. A man can be pensioned, receiving one-sixtieth of his average salary for the last three years for each year of service rendered. 8. Yes. 9. Competitive examination and physical fitness. 10. Few females are employed. The salaries vary greatly, the services rendered being very peculiar. The first clerk in the register-general's office receives $2,712; the second, $1,440, while the Chinese clerk and interpreter receives $792. In the post-office, the postmaster-general receives $3,600; the clerks, most of whom have Portuguese names, with one or two Englishmen, from $240 to $728. The postmen, who are natives, average about $125. CANADA. The conditions vary somewhat in the public service of the different provinces in Canada. 1. In the federal offices the usual official day is from 9.30 a. m.; to 4 p. m., or six and a half hours. In the Halifax post-office the day's. work averages seven and one half hours. In the custom-house the principal officers work six hours, but subordinates employed outside about nine. 2. The hours are as above. There is a reasonable allowance of time for lunch, but there is no law authorizing this. 3. There are fourteen statute holidays per annum. Officers are allowed six months on sick leave with pay, on medical certificate. 4. The annual vacation is three weeks. The postal employés do not get the regular holidays as a rule, although they get their vacation. 5. Monthly. 6. Employés are appointed for good behavior. An official who abstains entirely from politics and gives faithful service is almost invariably continued in office, no matter what change of administration takes place; but sometimes officials of minor rank do take part more or less on behalf of the administration to whom they are indebted for their positions. 7. A clerk must have served ten years to be entitled to the benefit of the superannuation list. He contributes yearly out of his salary to the superannuation fund. At 65 years he is entitled to the benefits of the superannuation, although many employés are retained in the service beyond this age. He must have been in the service thirty-five years to ask for the superannuation if in good health. After serving ten years, if superintendent, the employé receives ten fiftieths of his salary, and thereafter, for each additional year, one-fiftieth additional, up to thirty-five years. A deduction of from 14 to 2 per cent per annum is made from the salary of all employés to whom the superannuation act applies. 8. Yes. 9. Appointments are made at and after the passing of a civil-service examination, but it is alleged that they are generally procured through the recommendations of members of Parliament at Ottawa, and that without such indorsement appointments are not made. There is much complaint of the favoritism shown in these appointments. There seems to be a curious analogy between the workings of the civil-service law in Canada and the workings of the civil-service law in New York, which results, as compared with the workings of the Federal law and the Massachusetts law, have been very unsatisfactory. 10. Females are largely employed, at the same salaries as males. 11. Length of service is made the ground of increase of salary, though for only certain employés. Applicants go through regular grades of employment, first being put on as temporary employés on probation, and then appointed at the lowest grade. If at the end of the year the applicant's deportment and efficiency have been satisfactory he is placed on the permanent staff, and then can obtain an annual increase of salary. If he does well, and if he reaches $800 a year, he may be appointed to the second grade, where the maximum salary is $1,200. In the first grade it may go as high as $1,500. Chief clerks and officials of that grade sometimes go as high as $2,400. 1. Seven hours. NEW ZEALAND. 2. Nine till 5, with an hour for lunch. 3. Saturdays are half-holidays. There are seven regular holidays. There is no rule as to sick pay, although a medical certificate must be filed when required. 4. The annual vacation is four weeks. 5. Employés are paid on the last day of each month. 6. Employés are appointed to serve until dismissed, with three months' warning. Officers may retire on pension after thirty years' service, or on attaining the age of 60 years. 7. But pensions have been abolished since 1871, and only those can get them who were appointed prior to that date. 8. Yes. 9. All appointments to the civil service are through competitive examination under the civil service reform act of 1886, being made from the most successful competitors in the order of merit to cadetships (or, as we would say, probationary places), at a salary which can not be more than $500 a year until the passing of the senior civil-service examinations. There is a compulsory system of state insurance of 5 per cent a year for every civil servant. The money is invested at interest by the public-trust office. The sums thus invested can not be attached for debt or be deemed an asset in case of bankruptcy. On retirement from the service, for whatever cause, except the commission of a crime, the civil servant, or, in the event of his death, his heir, receives the amount which is to his credit. VICTORIA. The civil service in Victoria is, in the language of the present premier of that colony, the most attractive and best paid employment in it. The entire police force and all the railroad employés are in the government service, but not subject to the civil-service act. In the civil service proper there are 10,908 employés, including more than 4,800 teachers, 2,100 in the clerical division, and 3,700 in the nonclerical division. By the public-service act of 1883 a public-service board of 3 persons was provided for the express purpose of entirely divorcing the public service from politics, the act containing in its preamble the statement thatIt is expedient and highly desirable to abolish all patronage with respect to appointments and promotions in the public service and to establish a just and equitable system in lieu thereof, which will enable all persons who have qualified themselves in that behalf to enter the public service without favor or recommendation other than that of their own merits and fitness for the position. In 1886 the railways of the colonies were placed by special statute in the hands of a board of commissioners, who were to build and operate "free from political control or influence." These acts were consolidated into one act on the 10th of July, 1890. 1 and 2. Office hours are from 9 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. (except on Saturdays, when the office is closed at noon), with half an hour for lunch. Eight hours constitute a day's labor for artisans and mechanics. 3. The generally-recognized holidays allowed with pay are New Year's day, Christmas day and the following day, Good Friday and the following Saturday and Monday, the birthday of Her Majesty and of the Prince of Wales, and special holidays. Sick leave, on certificate from doctor, is allowed for not exceeding twelve months. 4. Four weeks, at the discretion of the head of the department as to convenience of time. After twenty years' service officers may be allowed furlough for twelve months, half of the time on full and half on half-pay. 5. Monthly. 6. The time of permanent employment is during good behavior; but retirement from the service is compulsory at 65, and is optional at 60. There are special exceptions, allowing employment in certain cases of a temporary character. Pensions were formerly paid to the officers, but those appointed since 1881 are supposed to make provisions for their retirement by life insurance. No probationer has his appointment confirmed until he has effected in some life insurance company an insurance on his life for the payment of a sum of money at his death should it occur before the age of retirement from the public service, or, if he survive till that age, of a sum of money or annuity on the date of such retirement. Such policy provides for the payment to the person assured, on his attaining the age of 60 years, of a sum of money at least equal to the amount of the maximum salary, or else of annuities at least equaling one-tenth of the maximum annual salary. As regards female teachers, the limit of age is put at 50 years instead of 60. A civil-service exami 9. Retired officers can engage in business. nation is required for entrance to the service. All appointments to the clerical division are made through the competitive examinations in the regular order of registration. Competitive examinations apply even in the nonclerical division. 10. Females are employed as postmistresses, telegraph operators, clerks in certain departments, matrons and teachers in the state schools. Their salaries are rather lower than those of men. Female teachers get four-fifths of the salary paid to a man teacher. 11. Length of service, if a man is efficient, is a ground for increased compensation. The clerks enter at the age of 19 or upwards at £80 a year. They then increase by annual increments of from £10 to £20, the maximum salary being, after some thirty-five years of service, £750. In other words, entering at about $400 they can, as a reward for long and faithful service, receive about $3,700 in the clerical department. Outside of the clerical class salaries vary. The surveyor-general gets $4,500; the chief engineer of the Melbourne water supply, $5,000; chief engineer of the Victoria water supply, $6,000; architects, $2,500 to $3,000; the astronomer, more than $5,000; and his assistants, $1,200 to more than $3,000; librarian, $4,200; etomologist, $1,700; botanist, $3,700. Laborers are paid at varying rates. Blacksmiths get from $45 to $55 a month; carpenters from $50 to $60; carters from $35 to $45; cooks from $50 to $60; firemen from $35 to $45; engineers from $70 to $130; letter-carriers from $35 to $55 a month. The annual increment is about $30. Letter-assorters receive from $57 to $87 a month; female typewriters from $22 to $32 a month. UNITED STATES. 1 and 2. In the Departments at Washington and in the several custom-houses the official hours are from 9 until 4, with a recess of half an hour at noon; but these hours may be extended in accordance with any special requirement of the public business. Out-door employés in the customs service have longer hours. Letter-carriers work eight hours and are paid for overtime. The hours of labor for clerks at post-offices depend upon the usual hours in which the principal business houses in the place are kept open. In the railway-mail service each man has a run which will average eight hours a day, counting Sundays. Eight hours by law constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics. 3. Holidays usually allowed with pay are New Year's, Washington's Birthday, Decoration Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and days of national mourning. In the railway-mail service neither holidays nor Sundays are allowed. In the Departments at Washington and in the customs service thirty days are allowed for sick leave with pay, and a physician's certificate is required as evidence of sickness. 4. In the Departments at Washington thirty days' annual vacation are allowed, with pay, and in the customs service fourteen days, and by special authority not usually exceeding thirty days. Clerks and carriers at post-offices are by law allowed fifteen days, with pay. No annual vacation is given in the railway-mail service. 5. The periods of payment vary, being weekly, semimonthly, or monthly. 6. The Constitution did not fix the term of any office in the Executive Department, except that of President and Vice-President. The term of the President is four years. Judges of the Supreme, circuit, and district courts of the United States have the tenure of good behavior; but the Federal judges for the Territories, holding under the statutes, are given a term of four years and a tenure "at the pleasure of the appointing power," although the Constitution provides that judges of the "Supreme and inferior courts shall hold their offices during good behavior." The Constitution makes no provision bearing upon the terms or tenure of clerks, marshals, or other subordinates of courts, except what is involved in the declaration that "Congress may by law invest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, the courts of law, or in the heads of Departments." In 1820 a law was passed fixing the terms of district attorneys, collectors, naval officers, and surveyors of customs and several other less important officers at four years. This was the first fixed term for any such office. It further declared that these officers "shall be removable at pleasure." 1836 an act was passed requiring that all postmasters whose compensation was $1,000 a year or upwards should be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and that their term of office should be four years. They were made removable "at the pleasure of the President." Various other administrative offices have since been given a term of four years. In |