3
me to be unsatisfactory in the interests of the graduates of the College, inas-
much that the latter bodies have it in their power to employ these men at salaries,
which are quite inadequate for professional labour—salaries which would be
refused by a good clerk, even for the clerical work which is in many instances put
upon them in addition to their own legitimate duties.
Another matter, too, which must keep good men from coming into the pro-
fession, is that local fund boards hold out no hopes in their agreements or bonds,
they make with our graduates, of an increase of their salary, and is it to be
expected men will begin this life devoid of hope ? In a few instances small in-
creases of salary have been given, but only as a last resource, when the graduates
have signified their intention of resigning.
The Remount and Commissariat Departments have certainly offered several
appointments, but the salaries are so small, Rs. 30 per mensem, rising to Rs. 60
after many years' service, that of course they could not be accepted. Such salaries
are easily earned by mere salutries—nonprofessional assistants.
It will be thus seen that at present the field for really good employment is
extremely limited, and, in consequence, the number of students attending the
College has been steadily declining. Many who come are failures in other
branches and only join as a dernier resort, and look upon the College as a sort of
restitute for the destitute.
Remedy.
6. To remedy the state of affairs mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it
seems essential to me, in the first instance, to adhere to
the recommendation of Government in paragraph 6 of
their Resolution, Revenue Department, No. 2011 of 18th March 1891, viz., that
the pay of the graduates employed by local fund boards should be Rs. 50 per
mensem rising to Rs. 100 by annual increments of Rs. 5. No option of any kind
should be given to local fund boards to employ men on smaller salaries, even if they
can get them, and therefore, the provisions of paragraph 3 of Government Reso-
lution, Revenue Department, No. 4451 of 1st July 1891, ought to be withdrawn
and the graduates so employed removed from Local service, and drafted into the
Civil Veterinary Department, which it is under contemplation to form, so as to
make their services either Provincial or Imperial, and thus enable them to look
forward to a pension from which they are at present debarred (vide paragraph 6 of
Government Resolution, Revenue Department, No. 2011, dated 18th March 1891).
This seems all the more essential to me, not only in the interests of the graduates
themselves, but for the proper working of the Civil Veterinary Department,
because of the fact that these men will be under the control of the Veterinary
Superintendent of that department, and while they remain Local servants, his
control will be of a very doubtful character, as they do not in reality belong to his
department.
There is also a great necessity for the creation of a higher grade of service
with pay, beginning at Rs. 100 and rising to Rs. 200 by 5 annual increments, to
be filled by graduates who have shown special ability. The appointments, too,
should be of a special nature, such as Instructors at the various Veterinary
Colleges, Superintendents of the Hospital in connection with the College of
Science, Poona, the graduates working under the Principal of the Veterinary
College, Bombay, in connection with Act XX of 1879 (Glanders and Farcy Act)
and the immediate Assistant to the Superintendents in the Civil Veterinary
Department, of the various Presidencies, as for instance the Deputy Inspector of
Cattle Diseases, Madras. If Government were to take the initiative in this
direction, it is not at all unlikely that Native States would follow in raising the
pay and position of the graduates they employ.
Two years' class.
7. To give the full benefits to the public of an institution like the
Bombay Veterinary College, it is very essential that
an Elementary Class be opened in addition to the
Graduate class. The Government of India have decided that the men employed
as salutries at the Remount Depôts are in future to be replaced by men trained
at a recognised Veterinary College. Frequent applications are also made to this
College for men to act as Veterinary Assistants in the Transport and Commis-
sariat Department. The salaries offered, however, for the abovementioned posts