2294
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 66

an order to deprive such officer of such increment, which shall in that case not be paid: Provided that an appeal from the decision of the Secretary or the Superintendent shall lie to the Minister, and his determination thereon shall be final.

37. If, on the commencement of these regulations, any officer is in receipt of a greater salary than the maximum of the class assigned to his work, he shall be transferred as soon as may be convenient to some other branch of the Department in which he can be employed upon duties equivalent to the amount of his salary. If the officer is found unfit for such transference, his salary shall be reduced to the maximum of the class to which his work has been assigned.

38. Notwithstanding anything contained in these regulations, any officer may be transferred from one branch of the Department to another, and required to perform any and every duty assigned to any officer in a class, or any grade in such class.

39. No person who has held office in the Department or in any other branch of the Civil Service of the colony before the passing of “The Post and Telegraph Classification and Regulation Act, 1890,” and no officer employed in the Department who has previously passed the Civil Service Senior Examination prescribed by “The Civil Service Act, 1866,” or by “The Civil Service Reform Act, 1886,” or who is skilled in electricity or telegraphy, or in literature, science, or art, to a degree to satisfy the Minister of his fitness to be exempted from further examination, shall be required to pass any further examination (other than those specified in clauses 50, 51, and 52 hereof) for promotion to the higher classes in any division.

40. The Minister, on the production of satisfactory reasons, may allow any officer to decline offered promotion or appointment; but such officer shall forfeit his right to future promotion: Provided that the Minister, after the lapse of two years, may allow such officer to be considered again for promotion: Provided also that no officer shall be allowed to refuse compliance with any order of the Minister directing his removal from one position to another.

41. Nothing in these regulations shall be deemed to give any officer a right or claim to promotion to any vacant office, and vacancies shall only be filled if the Governor thinks it expedient to fill the same, and without detriment to the efficiency of the Department.

42. Every male officer of twenty-two years of age on the first day of April in any year shall draw a salary of not less than one hundred pounds per annum. Any portion of such salary above the classification scale for the office held shall be regarded as an allowance only, and shall not give the officer receiving it seniority over others in the same class or grade who entered such class or grade before him.

43. For the purpose of providing for the compensation to be paid to officers of the Department appointed after the passing of “The Post and Telegraph Classification and Regulation Act, 1890,” the following provisions shall have effect:—

(1.) Out of the salary of every such officer there shall be deducted the sum of five pounds per centum per annum, which said sum, with all interest which may accrue thereon, shall be paid into a separate fund to the Public Trustee, to be invested at interest on such security as the Public Trust Office Board approves; but no deductions shall be made for the compensation fixed to be paid to officers on leaving the service from any salary not exceeding one hundred pounds per annum.

(2.) The Public Trustee may invest the same along with other sums, but a separate account shall be kept for the amount paid to the credit of each such officer, and no sums to the credit of any officer shall be charged with or attached for debt under the process of any Court, or be deemed an asset in the event of his bankruptcy.

(3.) On such officer ceasing to be in the Civil Service, from whatever cause, except the commission of a crime, the amount to his credit in the Public Trust Office shall be paid to him; or, in case of his or her death, the amount shall be paid in such manner as may be directed by his or her will, and, in the absence of such will, then according to the law for the time being in force regulating the distribution of the estates of persons dying intestate.