§ (15.) £2,237, Post Office Telegraph Disallowances.
§ MR. WHITWELLasked whether the following payments were to be continued or not:—Extra pay to officers of the United Kingdom Telegraph Company, £576 10s., and allowances to directors and staff of the same Company? A foot-note explained that these payments were disallowed in accordance with the opinion expressed by the Public Accounts Committee in 1876. He wished to know what had become of Votes for the expenditure incurred since 1876, and whether the amount would continue to be paid?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSexplained that there had been some error committed in the mode in which the payment was made. The payment was not a continuous one.
§ MR. O'DONNELLcomplained that the telegraph clerks were paid at a lower rate in Dublin than in London, and also, he believed, in some provincial towns. This was unfair. The same work ought to be paid at the same rate, wherever it was done. The clerks in London were also paid for extra work; but in Dublin they were, in lieu of extra pay, allowed to leave their work earlier on less busy days, though they preferred to remain and receive additional pay, because they did not know how to occupy the spare time profitably elsewhere. He hoped the noble Lord the Postmaster General would, in this respect, place the Dublin telegraph clerks on the same footing with the London clerks.
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSpointed out that the subject had no connection with the Vote before the Committee. He would, however, promise to deal with it when the proper Vote came under consideration.
§ Vote agreed to.