156 SOUTH AFfriCAN BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



If, however, the contract system be maintained, and the 

 Government insists upon getting its money back, they 

 ■urge that a fairer method would be to demand cash repay- 

 ment by " deductions on the pay sheet " over a period of 

 years, rather than to reduce the grade of appointment 

 with consequent reduction in prospects. 



Pension Service. 



The later an officer enters the service the lower is the 

 final value of his pension. It is therefore considered 

 desirable that the upper branch of the suggested 

 Scientific and Technical Division should have the option 

 of contribution to the Pension Fund on the basis of 5% 

 of salary instead of tlie usual 4%. 



It is maintained, however, that a still greater improve- 

 ment in the Pension Privileges could be effected by revis- 

 ing the whole scheme, on an actuarial basis, in such a way 

 as to incorporate provision for widows and minor 

 children. Our body is termed the Biological Society, and 

 it is in no humorous spirit that it alludes to the pro- 

 pagation of the human species. An officer on a low 

 salary, and a pension which terminates with his own 

 life, is apt to consider marriage, and particularly the 

 artificial sterilisation thereof, in a cold spirit of 

 biological enquiry not altogether advantageous to the 

 birth-rate. It is urged, therefore, that the present pension 

 scheme is defective from the point of view of ''life 

 insurance ", and that it could be vastly improved by 

 embodying the principle of an optional " joint annuity " 

 for husband and wife. 



Leave Privileges. 



Science may be regarded as differing from clerical and 

 administrative work in the sense that in certain subjects 

 a '' scientific error " may pass undetected much longer 

 than a clerical or administrative mistake, and that, in 

 Kesearch, progress is often made by sudden leaps on the 



