MR. CARTERasked the Postmaster General, When the clerks who were in the employ of the Telegraph Companies, and retained by the Government, are likely to be classified according to merit, and when they will be put on the same position as the permanent Civil servants of the Crown, by having a periodical increase of salary; and whether in the event of any further delay, a provisional rise will be given to them at once?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, in reply, that the arrangements for the classification, according to merit, of the clerks taken over from the Telegraph Companies obviously required careful and prolonged consideration, and proper study of the relative merits of the persons concerned. Those arrangements were being proceeded with as rapidly as circumstances would permit. In a great many cases, in which good reasons were shown, provisional increases of pay had been given, and in all cases the persons taken over were secured by the Act of 1868 in their position as Civil servants of the Crown.