§ MR. CONYBEAREasked the Postmaster General whether he had received a petition, signed by 690 Telegraphists of the Central Telegraph Office, praying for the abolition of the present unequal and inconvenient method of payment, and for the substitution there for of the former method of equal and fortnightly payments which prevailed for 18 years; and whether he is prepared to grant the prayer of the petitioners; and, if not, why not?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) University of CambridgeThe petition to which the hon. Member refers was addressed, not to me, but to the Controller of the Central Telegraph Office. It bears the signatures of 697 persons out of 1,475. These officers are in receipt of yearly salaries, which, in accordance with the practice prevailing generally throughout the Department, are payable monthly, but, as a matter of convenience to the recipients in this case, an instalment of the salary is paid in the middle of every month. I am not able to authorize the re-introduction of a method, the continuance of which was forbidden by the Treasury on the ground that it resulted in payments in excess of the salaries to which the officers concerned were entitled.