§ MR. FERRANDsaid, he wished, before Mr. Speaker left the Chair, to put a question to the noble Lord the Secretary to the Admiralty. A short time ago certain rules and regulations were issued for the control and management of the dockyards. One of those rules referred to the superannuation of officers over sixty years of age. It was reported that that rule was to be stringently applied in the dockyard at Devonport, and that all officers there over sixty would have to retire, whereas at Ports mouth, Chatham, and, he believed, other dockyards, a certain number of officers over sixty were to be retained. He wished 666 to ask, Whether the rule is really to be applied stringently to all the dockyards, or whether any of them are to be excepted?
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, that by the Act of Parliament of 1859 all persons above the age of sixty were superannuated without any medical certificate; therefore, it was implied that persons above the age of sixty, unless reported to be still fully equal to the performance of their duties, were all liable to be superannuated. In the case of the dockyards, there had of late years been great stagnation owing to the establishments being so full, and there being so few vacancies amongst them, that there was scarcely an opportunity for the hired men getting on in the establishments. It was also felt very desirable in the dockyards that, in order to insure the great works being carried on with vigour and economy, that after a certain age all persons of the artificer class, no matter how worthy, should be superannuated, and the Admiralty decided that after the age of sixty all inferior officers and all artificers and labourers in Her Majesty's naval establishments should be superannuated, unless they were specially recommended by the superintendents as being men of very active habits and still thoroughly able to their work; but on arriving at the age of sixty-five they would be superannuated as a matter of course. This rule had been applied, not to Devonport alone, but to all the dockyards without any exception; and he could assure the hon. Gentleman that wherever superintendents of yards had stated that certain individuals were of peculiarly active habits, and were still able to do a-good day's work, if they were under sixty-five, they had had an extended time in the service; but in all cases all persons on arriving at the age of sixty-five were superannuated as a matter of course.
§ MR. FERRANDbegged to ask whether an order had not been recently issued and sent down to Devonport, directing that all the men above sixty, without any exception, should be superannuated? He had been told that several men, between the age of sixty and sixty-five, although well able to perform their duties, would be superannuated.
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETThat is not so.
§ Main Question put, and agreed to.