HC Deb 03 April 1865 vol 178 c669
MR. LYALL

said, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, Why such an unequal system prevails at the Customs for remunerating their Out-door Officers, so that in some ports, like Whitehaven, where both the cost of living is higher and the business much greater than in many other ports, yet the salary of the Officers is on a more reduced scale?

MR. PEEL,

in reply, said, the want of uniformity in the pay of Out-door Officers of Customs appeared to have arisen from the circumstance that up to 1856 those Officers were paid not by salaries, but by rates of daily pay, which, varied according to the nature of the duties they were employed in; but in 1856 the daily pay was reduced to a uniform sum of Is, a day, and the difference was commuted to a fixed salary, or wages, the amount of salary being fixed with reference to their average earnings during the three preceding years.