ook at this question from the point of view of advantage to the
community, we find that the present mode of staffing the higher posts
of the service from the male sex narrows the field of selection. It is
in the interests of the public that the best type of officer should be
secured, and not merely the best male available, and the unrestricted
admission of women to the higher classes in the Civil Service, and
their payment on the same terms as men would make for the greater
efficiency of the Department, by securing the services of highly
qualified women, who at present are not attracted by the small
salaries and the meagre prospects offered. It must also be realised by
heads of families that they have a right to expect that the service of
the State--a dignified, secure, and independent profession--should be
open to their daughters as well as to their sons. Furthermore, as
the revenue, out of which the salaries of Civil Servants are paid, is
collected from women as well as from men, women should have an equal
right to earn those salaries.

Economy in working and simplification of administration would be
attained by abolishing the separate examinations, and allowing men and
women to enter for the same examinations on equal terms.

There are certain advantages attached to service under the State,
which are taken into account when salaries are fixed, but the value
of these privileges to the staff is frequently over-estimated by
the outsider. For instance, security of tenure and the prospect of
a pension at retirement, often act as a deterrent to clever and
enterprising officers who, but for the sacrifice involved, would
throw up their appointment and seek more remunerative and promising
employment outside. Again, the medical attendance provided by the
Post Office is, in the case of the women employed in the Headquarters
Departments, only available in practice when they are well enough to
attend at the office to wait on the Medical Officer there. In theory,
every employee is entitled to the services of a Medical Officer at her
own home in case of serious illness, but, in fact, the Women Medical
Officers are too few to be able to give the necessary individual
attention. As an instance of this, it may be stated that to one
Department, numbering 1,800 women, the part time of one doctor only,
is allotted.

Other advantages are a steadily progressing scale of salary,
provided that efficient service is rendered; annual leave wi