14 JUNE 1935, Page 2

Municipal Civil Servants

The staffs of local governing authorities in this country form now in effect, though not in organization, a municipal civil service on an enormous scale ; and " Nalgo " (the National Association . of Local Government Officers) his long ventilated the question of securing, for. them national scales of salaries and conditions of employment. There are some who would like to see all local officials

of certain classes recruited and organized on a national

footing, with a national system of entrance examinations, salaries, and grades of promotion, and the maximum of interchangeability between the services of one loca authority and another. There are others who stress the advantage of local freedom, local variety, and, la general, local men for local jobs. " Nalgo " this year rejected the more ambitious proposals for uniformity, but passed a resolution in -favour of trying to secure national scales of salaries and conditions of service 'along the lines of an extension of the Whitley Councils. Conferences are to be called representing local councils and branches with a view to establishing provincial councils for areas not as yet covered. This may well prove for the present the most practical line of approach.