BOOK NOTES
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1954.tb01729.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
BOOK
NOTES
?he Civil Service in the Constitution
By
PROFESSOR
K.
C.
WHEARE.
Athlone
Press, 1954. Pp. 34. 2s. 6d.
A
LECTURE
delivered before the University
of London to commemorate the centenary
of the Trevelyan-Northcote Report. The
author deals with the origins, findings
and significance of the Report and reflects
on certain aspects of the present-day Civil
Service in the light of it.
A
Short International Bibliography
of
Public Administration
United Nations and
H.M.S.O.,
1953.
Pp.
20.
2s.
THIS
is a list
of
360 books and presumably
covers the best books of all countries,
though United States publications pre-
dominate. In some instances even, only
the American publishers of British books
are given-ne is left in little doubt that
the headquarters of the United Nations
is in New York.
No
attempt is made to
give alternative editions
or
translations.
It
is part of the services provided by
Technical Assistance Administration and
therefore is presumably designed
for
the
needs of those countries in need of ad-
ministrative
‘‘
know-how.” If
so,
it
is a
strange publication and one wonders just
what these people
will
get out
of
it. There
is, of course, much that is good and indeed
essential reading in the list, but it is
difficult to see why some have been
included and other better books excluded.
Altogether one is not very hopeful that
the list will be of great help to the would-be
administrator-but to some extent this
is a reflection on the state
of
the literature
in this field rather than on the list itself.
One thing is clear, if this list is anything
to go by, American methods
of
public
administration are being exported on a
large scale-a tribute to the money-
making powers of the U.S. industrialist
Bnd the energy of American authors.
Local Government Statistics
Guides to Official Sources No. 3.
H.M.S.O.
Pp. 34. 1s. 6d.
THIS
is the third guide prepared under
the auspices of the Interdepartmental
Committee on Social and Economic
Research.
It
is
mainly concerned with
financial and general
Local
Authority
statistics including, however, certain
services, housing, water, sewerage
and
public cleansing, and child care. There
is an historical survey, and both England
and Wales and Scotland are covered.
An important feature of the guide
is
the
information about the non-governmental
publications in this field-principally the
many publications of the Institute
of
Municipal Treasurers and Accountants
and the Society of County Treasurers.
These are reliable and comprehensive and
constitute an essential part of the data
about the finances and work of Local
Authorities.
The
two
previous guides
in
this very
useful series dealt with Labour Statistics
and the Census Reports, 1801-1931.
Australian Civil Service
THE
28th Annual Report of the Common-
wealth Public Service Board marks
50
years of control
of
the Commonwealth
Public Service by a Commissioner
or
Board. The range of subjects covered
reflects the wide powers of the Board-
0.
&
M.,
Promotion, Rates of Pay,
Training, Discipline, etc., as well as
Recruitment. Nearly 30 per cent.
of
proposed promotions were appealed against
-18 per cent. of the appeals being
successful. The Board expresses concern
at the high proportion
of
staff concentrated
in
the 25-30 age group, though it does
not say why this problem could not have
been avoided
or
at least mitigated. Infor-
mation is given about the Cadetship
scheme, the use of part-time University
courses
for
the training of staff, and major
departmental reorganisations.
Four
Decades
of
Students in Social
Work
By WINIFRED E.
CAVANAGH.
University
of Birmingham Studies in Economics
and Society. Pp. 97
(mim.).
12s. 6d.
BIRMINGHAM was among the first
of
British Universities to institute a course
of education
for
social work. This
monograph is a detailed analysis of the
experience over some 40 years. The
proportion
of
men on the course has
always been small (16 per cent. over the
period). The most frequent reason given
by students
for
undertaking the training
was “interest
in
people,” but in recent
139
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