§ MR. E. J. REEDasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If it is true that established labourers in Her Majesty's dockyards, who have been engaged for long periods as skilled labourers, and have received the corresponding increased rate of pay, when pensioned nevertheless have their pensions based only on the lower rate of pay of ordinary unskilled labourers; whether in October last a Petition on this subject from Pembroke dockyard was submitted to the Admiralty in accordance with their Lordships' regulations, but received no reply; and, whether he will take 1144 the case of this humble class of workmen into consideration, and make some arrangement by which their pensions may be regulated, as the pensions of more highly paid persons usually are, viz., according to the rate of pay they have been receiving for a fixed period previous to superannuation?
§ MR. HUNT,in reply, said, it was true that certain labourers engaged for some time as skilled labourers, and receiving extra pay as such, had received pensions on the lower rate of pay; but the rule was one laid down by the Treasury that pensions must be calculated upon the basis of the established rate of pay. These men, therefore, had not been treated in an exceptional way. A Petition on the subject had been received from Pembroke; but as some alterations in the establishment were going on, no final answer had been given.