H.—l4

48

General Remarks. Cards are used generally throughout the office, and the records are well kept. There appear* to be no necessity, however, for the practice which exists of entering particulars of correspondence on the cards. It was said that these particulars with the aid of the indexed carbons of outward letters would enable a file to be reconstructed to a certain extent if papers were lost. Government Life Insurance Department. Present System. - , Remarks. Special register, book indexes. Series system and typed indexes should b« - - used for general records. Papers are first sent to Correspondence Clerks, There is a good deal of unnecessary handling who cover themfand ascertain if there are any of papers in this Department, previous papers; they are then returned to Re.cord Clerk, entered in the register, and indexed arid returned to the Correspondence Clerks. They are.then entered in charge-books by the clerks who are to deal with them. These charge-books are brought up daily for examination to ensure that no work has been overlooked or delayed. Applications for loans, after being passed Applications for loans: These should be a through the general register, are entered by series of the general system. The entry in the Mortgage Branch in a hook; when the applica- register is made to serve no purpose, as the tion is granted a card is made out and placed applications are afterwards recorded in the Mortin * Application granted " drawer, and when the . gage Branch, and filed alphabetically. loan is repaid the card is transferred to the ; It is suggested that in the Mortgage Branch the " Loans repaid " drawer. The papers are after- card be made out when the application is made wards kept by the Mortgage Branch, and filed and transferred to '"' Granted " and " Repaid " alphabetically. drawers as the transaction progresses. This would make the book entry unnecessary. Policy files are kept partly by the Correspond- Those should apparently be under the charge ence Branch and partly by the Accountant's of the Record Clerk solely. Branch. j : Government Printing Office, Present System.' Remarks. Book register and nominal and subject in- Adoption of series system and typewritten dexes index-cards recommended. General Remarks. The bulk of correspondence received refers to orders, and is dealt with in a commercial sense. The system works satisfactorily, and no change is needed. The time occupied "in recording general matters is about two hours daily. This would be reduced under the new system as proposed above. Government Statistician's Office. Present System,. Remarks. Book register and index. The proposed new system should be adopted. General Remarks. This Department has only been nine months in existence. The great portion of correspondence relates to statistical returns in connection with the publication of the Year-book, &c. This correspondence is not recorded, but kept by officers whose duty it is to compile the returns, after which it is said to be of no use. The Government Statistician states it would be a waste of time to record these unimportant papers. The benefit that would accrue from the adoption of the proposed system—which must necessarily be small in such a Department—would result in additional time being available for the Record Clerk to perform other duties. Department of Hospitals, Health, and Charitable Aid. An attempt has been made in this Department to adopt a system on the lines of that recommended in the General Report. ,■, The system does not appear to be complete either in the registering or in the indexing, 'It serves, however, as a good example of the simplicity of the system when, notwithstanding ■ [t» incompleteness, the Department claims that no great difficulty arises in obtaining files. The nominal index particularly seemed incomplete : this resulted from a desire of relying more on the general index, and finally on the letter-books. This reliance on letter-books is a sign of weakness in any system. The general index appeared to be well kept. There should, however, be a more complete classification of the subjects. : The series numbers should be kept independently of the index, and form a general/register. A weakness which results in this Department from the combination of the index and the register is illustrated by the fact that the only way files are marked out of the Department is by means of printed slips placed in the file-cupboards.- no check being kept on the outstanding files. "' The present system should be brought .into line with that to be introduced into general rise.