I beg to move: "That a sum not exceeding £41,678 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ended the 31st March, 1924, for salaries for expenses in connection with the Office of Public Works"; £29,000 has been voted on account.
The increase in this vote is due to the increase in numbers—34—in the temporary staff. That staff has been engaged largely in connection with new services. The chief of these are the maintenance of army barracks and camps, the housing of the Civic Guard, arrangements for reconstruction, and the examination of claims. The cost is reduced somewhat by the retirement of a certain number of officials whose places have been taken by temporary employees at a lower rate of pay.