Having passed this examination and having complied with other necessary conditions, I was due for immediate employment as Clerk Class V.

At the Department of Home Affairs I was welcomed by the Secretary (Walters) who directed me to the Weather Bureau. The Chief Clerk (then F. Ingamels) put me through a dictation test to ensure that there had been no impersonation at the entrance examination. Then I was ushered into the room to which I had been assigned, under the supervision of R. F. Griffiths, who was the only occupant at the time, but it was clear that there were other regular occupants.

Griffiths put before me a book 'Meteorological Word Code', telling me that I should commit the code to memory. Next he produced a sheet full of columns of figures, saying 'we add the columns up and take the average over the number of days in the month'.

Thus I worked for years after and it was not until machinists with mechanical adding machines were placed on the staff that Clerks Class V were relieved of this relentlessly recurring and frustrating work; though I must add that, as a result of this training, I was never daunted by arithmetic problems when I met them, whether at work or study.

Bureau of Meteorology