Book Notes
| Date | 01 December 1957 |
| Published date | 01 December 1957 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1957.tb01323.x |
BOOK
NOTES
Report
of
the Civil Service
Commission
As
usual
this
report contains a great deal
of interesting material. The Commission
has been reconstituted and a new Order in
Council supersedes the old 1920 Order
under which the Commission exercised
various
powers. The changes mainly
concern the Certificate of Qualification,
e.g., such a Certificate is no longer a general
condition of appointment in a temporary
capacity. The Report points out that the
implementation of the Report of the Royal
Commission on the Civil Service, parti-
cularly the widespread introduction of a
five-day week, already appears to have had
a
beneficial effect
on
recruitment. Even the
entry to the Administrative Class for 1957
cleems to be stronger both in numbers and
quality than
in
1956. The report records
one development
of
historical interest.
Since 1870 candidates’ examination fees
have been paid in the form of a Civil
Service Stamp-now candidates are to pay
by postal order
or
cheque.
How
Local Government
Works
1956-57.
H.M.S.O.
Pp.
40.
2s. 3d.
By HONOR WYATT. The Bodley Head,
1957.
Pp. 160. 9s. 6d.
Tm
author sets out to answer some
of
the
basic questions which young citizens ask
about the history and working of
local
government. Her book succeeds in
bringing the subject to life and
in
convey-
ing, in addition to factual information, a
great deal of the atmosphere and sdrit
in
which elected members and chief officers
carry out their duties. She
also
shows
what manner of men and women they
usually are. Detailed criticism of a
book
with such a simple object would be
ungenerous, but the statements on page 144
that “Local Government Officials work
under the general guidance of an official
known
as the Clerk of the Council or a
Town Clerk
”
and
“
I
have heard the
Clerk of the Council described as a kind of
managing director of a large firm which
has
several departments and I think that
explains
his
position very well,” are at
least an over-simplification if not entirely
misleading.
Housing in Great Britain
By
HERBERT
ASHWORTH.
Thomas
Skinner, 1957. Pp. 157.
7s.
6d.
THIS
book, written by the General
Manager and Secretary of the Co-operative
Permanent Building Society, is a con-
solidated and revised edition of two
booklets published in 1946 and 1947.
Designed both for students reading for the
final examination of the Building Societies
Institute and for the general reader, the
present version forms
a
useful introduction
and guide to housing and housing legisla-
tion in Great Britain.
It
is divided into
two
parts, dealing with housing policy and
housing standards respectively.
An
appen-
dix
is devoted to post-war housing
legislation.
L.
Urwick
:
A
Bibliography
Urwick Orr and Partners, 1957. Pp.
45.
Available free.
LT.-COL. URWICK’S vast contribution to the
literature of scientific management
is
listed in detail in
this
compilation. In
addition to his numerous contributions as
an original thinker, he has acted as
a
publicist for the work of others.
All
librarians will be grateful to Col. Urwick’s
firm
for making available such a very
useful bibliography in the field of manage-
ment literature.
Hart’s Introduction to the
Law
of
Local Government
and
Administration
(Sixth Edition)
By WILLIAM
0.
HART.
Butterworth,
1957. Pp. lxiv+727+79. 45s.
THIS
further edition of
an
authoritative
work which first appeared in 1934 takes
full
account of recent changes in the law
relating to town and country planning,
housing, and rating; of the Licensing
Act, 1953, and the Food and Drugs Act,
1955; and of the 1956 and 1957 White
Papers on the Reform of Local Government
43
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