§ MR. D. SULLIVAN(for Mr. P. O'BRIEN) (Monaghan, N.) (Westmeath, S.)asked the Postmaster General, Whether the instructions laid down in the Post Office Official Circular of May 9, 1882, regulating and defining the allowances to be made to clerks employed on special duty outside the office to which they are attached, has been amended or cancelled since the date of the issue of those instructions; if not, upon what grounds is the clerk employed in the temporary telegraph office established in the County Court-house in Belfast, at Assize times, not granted the allowance at the rate as specified by those instructions, under the heading of "clerks employed in the neighbourhood of their own offices"; whether he is aware that the clerk employed in this temporary office is obliged to incur considerable expense in providing the ordinary necessaries of existence, and if it is a fact that he is confined to the office from the sitting to the rising of the Court each day; whether the clerk employed in a similar capacity in the temporary telegraph office established in connection with the cattle and horticultural shows, held in Belfast from time to time, is granted the allowance as specified under the heading referred to; and, if so, upon what grounds is the distinction made; and, whether, if this distinction cannot be maintained, he will cause that those clerks who have within a reasonable period in the past performed the duty of the office established in the Court-house be compensated to the extent to which they are entitled under the instructions of May, 1882?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)My attention has only just been called to the case to which the hon. Member refers. There is no distinction between the two telegraphists, of whom one is employed at the County Court-house and the other at the agricultural shows; and, accordingly, I have given directions that, on and after the 1st of January next, the former shall receive the same allowance as the latter. Had the officer concerned applied through the usual official channel his application would have been duly considered, and there would have been 447 no necessity for troubling the hon. Member.