* This amount includes a special appropriation of $12,000 which was never used. NOTE: The fiscal year begins on October first; the table showing appropriations, therefore, refers to fiscal years, while the table showing the number of candidates examined refers to calendar years. While the periods compared do not, therefore, exactly coincide, the comparison is substantially fair. From the above tables it will be observed that the increase in the amount of the appropriations allowed the Commission has been much less than the increase in the work of the Commission. This is better shown by the following table: Per Capita Cost of Examinations An interesting study might be made of the per capita cost of examinations. The report of Dr. B. L. Falconer, Director of Civil Service in the Philippines for the year ended June 13, 1913, contains a table showing such costs varying from $3.77 to $13.91 in various commissions. At that time our per capita cost for educational examinations was $3.66. Recent correspondence with various city and State Commissions shows that the New York State Commission is probably examining candidates at a less cost than almost any other Commission. Our present per capita cost is approximately $3.00. Details From Other Departments The Civil Service Law, section 4, reads in part as follows:"The Commission may select suitable persons in the official service of the state or any of its civil divisions, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such persons serve, to act as examiners under its direction." Under the authority thus conferred the present Commission has secured, at various times, the services of employees in other departments, viz., the Highway Department, State Engineer's Office, Public Service Commission for the First District, and the Department of Public Works. The persons so detailed to the work of this Commission serve without additional compensation. The assistance of the examiners thus obtained by detail has been of great value to the Examinations Division, and has enabled us to get out the work with much greater promptness than would have otherwise been the case. The following table shows the number of examiners detailed from other departments and the number of days service rendered: In addition to the above examiners who worked exclusively on engineering examinations, the Commission employed three temporary engineering examiners who served a total of 315 days. This makes a total of extra service of 16 examiners, and 891 days of service which equals the service of one examiner employed for nearly three years without allowing for vacations. Organization of the Division We now have the following positions in the Examinations Division: We also have the following employees paid from the appropriation for "Local Examinations," but who will be permanently employed and for whom the Legislature will be asked to provide regular salaries. 1 Examiner 2 Junior Clerks...... $1,800 1 Typ. Copist $480 The death on February 16, 1915, of Assistant Chief Examiner Philip H. Parthesius deprived the Commission of the services of an unusually faithful and competent employee. Graduating from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with the degree of Civil Engineer, he entered the service of this Commission on June 1, 1909, having been appointed from the Assistant Civil Engineer eligible register at a salary of $1,800. He was gradually advanced in salary and responsibility until he was receiving, at the time of his death, $3,000 per annum. The Legislature, unfortunately, did not see fit to continue the appropriation for the position of Assistant Chief Examiner, nor did the appropriations committee grant the request of the Commission to allow the apportionment of the salary to two new employees at $1,800 and $1,200. Mr. Henry S. Knight, of Troy, N. Y., was appointed examiner June 16, 1915, and is paid from the appropriation for local examinations. It is hoped that the Legislature of 1916 will make provision for his salary in the appropriation bill. Mr. Knight has had nearly ten years' experience in civil service work with the Wisconsin State Civil Service Commission. Examination Rooms The Commission is seldom called upon to pay rent for the use of examination rooms owing to the provision of section 5 of the Civil Service Law which authorizes the use of public buildings for examination purposes by the Commission. Our examinations are generally held in high school buildings, although we also make use of supervisors rooms, grand jury rooms and court rooms which are almost invariably placed at our disposal with great cheerfulness on the part of those charged with the custody of such rooms. The Department of Education of the City of New York has been particularly responsive to the requests of this Commission and has freely placed at our disposal all the facilities needed by us in holding even the largest examinations; the instance of the court attendant examination might be cited when 4,500 candidates were examined in New York City, for which we used two high schools in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. The United States Civil Service Commission has also permitted us to use their examination rooms in Federal buildings in New York City, Buffalo and Troy. Particular acknowledgment should be made of the co-operation of Mr. H. C. Coles, Secretary of the Second United States Civil Service District, New York City, by affording us the frequent use of the United States examination room in the Brooklyn Federal building. Examination Centers State Civil Service examinations are held at intervals of about six weeks in 34 cities and villages throughout the State. Ten of these centers were added to the list in 1915; these are, Cobleskill, Dunkirk, Glens Falls, Lowville, Norwich, Oswego, Port Henry, Riverhead, Warsaw and White Plains. The complete list is as follows: Albany, Amsterdam, Auburn, Binghamton, Buffalo, Cobleskill, Dunkirk, Elmira, Glens Falls, Hornell, Ithaca, Jamestown, Kingston, Lockport, Lowville, Malone, Newburgh, New York, Norwich, Ogdensburg, Olean, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburg, Port Henry, Potsdam, Poughkeepsie, Riverhead, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Warsaw, Watertown, White Plains. In order to afford the residents of the country districts an opportunity of taking the examinations at less expense for travel, it is recommended that the following places be designated as examination centers. Allegany county, Wellsville; Hornell, the nearest examination center is 27 miles distant. Columbia county, Hudson; Albany 28 miles distant. Cortland county, Cortland; Syracuse 37 miles distant. Delaware county, Walton; no examination center in Delaware county and none easily accessible. Genesee county, Batavia; Rochester 32 miles distant. Madison county, Oneida; Syracuse 26 miles distant. St. Lawrence county, Gouverneur; Potsdam 34 miles distant. Wyoming county, Arcade; no other examination center is easily accessible. Yates county, Penn Yan; Rochester 53 miles distant. Local Examiners The Commission has a staff of 33 local examiners who conduct examinations at the various examination centers; of this number, 22 are school principals or teachers and many are high school principals; 7 are lawyers; the remaining 4 are of various occupations. The Commission is fortunate in having secured the services of very competent local examiners, in whom the most implicit confidence has to be reposed. No instance has been brought to our attention during the year indicating any laxity on the part of these representatives of the Commission and it is believed that |