The Auditor-General:

The Auditor-General asks to be advised on the following questions:

1. Are not officers in the Customs Department subject to the provisions of regulation 63 under the Public Service Act, with respect to the rates of pay for overtime, irrespective of the fact that the fees collected from the public under the Customs Regulations are subject to a different scale?
2. Can a regulation under the Customs Act be legally made to fix the rates of overtime for Customs officers upon a scale differing from that under the Public Service Act, as proposed by the Comptroller-General in his memorandum of 4th instant?

Reference is made to the opinion of the Attorney-General of 11 September 1902⁽¹⁾ on this subject.

My opinion upon these questions is as follows:

1. The rates of pay for overtime specified in the Public Service Regulations do not apply to overtime pay to Customs officers out of moneys collected from the public at rates prescribed under section 29 of the Customs Act 1901.
2. Yes. The power to make regulations conferred by section 270 of the Customs Act 1901 extends to fixing rates of overtime to be paid out of moneys collected under section 29-subject of course to the necessary appropriation.⁽²⁾

[Vol. 4, p. 14]

(1) Opinion No. 91.

(1) This opinion was published in Commonwealth of Australia, Pari. Papers 1904, Vol. II, p. 1341.