§ MR. H. B. SHERIDANsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is the intention of the Government to amalgamate the Customs' Extra Clerks with the establishment, or place them in receipt of such a scale of pay as will place them on a footing with the establishment and enable them to provide for their families?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH, in replying, said, he must take the liberty to remark that this was, he believed, the fourth occasion during the last two months on which the hon. Member had placed this Question on the Notice Paper. Now, considering the terms with which the Question concluded, he thought it scarcely fair to repeat the Question so often without explanation. It was not the intention of the Government to amalgamate the Customs extra clerks with the establishment clerks. It was impossible to do so, consistently with the rules of the service. Moreover the scale of pay of the extra clerks had been considered by the Treasury two years ago, and he was not prepared to say that if it were again considered there would be any change in the decision arrived at in 1866.