§ MR. FERRANDsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, Why the Board have promoted—Waymouth, lately Foreman of Shipwrights at a salary 1158 of £250 per annum at the Devonport yard, to be a Timber Inspector at Deptford yard at a salary of £350, in contravention of their own order limiting the age for promotion of leading men and officers to fifty years, the said—Waymouth being upwards of sixty-eight years of age; whether he passed an examination previous to his being promoted, and whether he ever passed any examination at all; why the office of Timber Inspector at Devonport is not filled up; and whether the Admiralty do not intend, after Waymouth has been a short time at Deptford, to bring him back to Devonport at the highest salary of £400 a year, thus entitling him to the highest scale of superannuation.
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, in reply, that the hon. Gentleman made an assumption which was not borne out by the fact. There was no contravention of any order of the Admiralty in the recent appointment of Mr. Waymouth to the, office of a timber inspector at Deptford; and he was surprised that the hon. Gentleman had fallen into that error, because he had, not many days ago, moved for a copy of the Admiralty regulations with respect to promotion in the dockyards. The rule was that no person beyond the age of forty-five, and in some cases fifty, was to be examined for promotion to higher grades; and there were several situations given without any examination—namely, those situations which required no higher qualification than those which the parties had already filled. Mr. Waymouth was a foreman of shipwrights, and a foreman of shipwrights was eligible to the office of an assistant master shipwright as long as he possessed the necessary vigour for the discharge of its duties. But if he did not possess that vigour, he might be appointed a timber inspector, an appointment which did not require the same amount of activity, but for which he should possess a considerable knowledge of his special business. Mr. Waymouth had been removed to the latter office, and it was one which he was perfectly capable of filling, although he had attained an advanced age. That was his (Lord Clarence Paget's) answer to the hon. Gentleman's first question. In reply to the second question, he had to state, that no examination was required previously to an appointment to the office of a timber inspector; and further, that Mr. Waymouth had been made a foreman of the yard in the year 1847, and before any regulations 1159 had been made with respect to examinations for any of those offices. The third question of the hon. Gentleman was, why the office of timber inspector at Devonport had not yet been filled up? and he (Lord Clarence Paget) had to observe, in reply, that that subject was under the consideration of the noble Duke at the head of the Board of Admiralty. In answer to the fourth question of the hon. Gentleman, he had to state, that he was not aware of any intention on the part of the Admiralty to send Mr. Waymouth back to Devonport.
§ MR. FERRANDwished to know, whether Mr. Waymouth, after having first held the office of a timber inspector at Devonport, had not been removed to Deptford with an addition of £100 to his salary?
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, that the only increase of salary Mr. Waymouth received was the difference between that of foreman of the yard and timber inspector.